The Next Life
by The Lord of Nothing
Summary: We all know that Nobodies fade back into darkness if they don't rejoin. But what if Kingdom Hearts allowed some of the human Nobodies to come back. Sora/Kairi Axel/Larxene Hayner/Olette Riku/Selphie Demyx/Fuu
1. A lesson well learned,

Chapter 1 A lesson that should well be learned.

It was your normal, average day in Twilight Town. Shops were open. School was out. Summer jobs were being looked for. The Struggle competition was on. Kids hung out with their friends and talked.

One thing in particular they talked about was the freaks in the white jumpsuits they had seen last year. The white and grey things that they had been seen all over Twilight Town and the people in black cloaks that seem to have set them lose. Nobody seemed to know what they were or where they came from only that the so-called 'Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee' should have taken action.

But now everything was quiet. No freaks this year only the norm. Sea-salt ice cream included.

Seifer, Rai, and Fuu stood in the sandlot. They had sent Vivi with some munny to go get some ice cream so they had nothing to do except lean against the door of the of building where they kept the Struggle Equipment. They day had been extremely slow. No one had come up to Seifer for a challenge, not even Hayner or Sora. But Sora was usually home in the 'Islands' as he called them and Hayner was working on a way of impressing Olette when she came back from the Islands when Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi came to watch the Struggle competition. No outsiders had been seen yet so he really had nothing to do. He was bored.

Seifer saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see a guy about maybe 18 or 19. He was tall about 6ft; he was rail thin that hid muscle. His hair was probably the most noticeable thing about him. It was red as fire and was extremely spiky so much so that it looked like that back of his head was exploding. All down of what was visible of his arms were black tattoos that resembled the symbols on the freaks. His back to Seifer, but he could see that he guy wore baggy grey pants; a black shirt but that had flames at the bottom. They guy just stood against the wall.

"Hey," Seifer called to the guy his usual air of superiority filtering inside it. . . "You want something? You lookin' for trouble?"

The guy turned around to face Seifer, Fuu and Rai. His face was angular and kind of pale; he had a bit of a smirk on his face that showed that knew more than his face showed. Under his startling emerald green eyes were these long upside-down black tear drop things on his face. Yet the man remained silent.

"You not gonna talk?" Seifer said annoyed. "Who do you think you are?"

The man's smirk grew wider as put his hand in his pocket. "The name's Axel." His voice was full of attitude and sarcasm that the only place this guy could fit in was in Seiner's opinion some sitcom. "A-X-E-L. Got it memorized? And to answer your question, no, I didn't come here for a fight but I'd be happy to oblige." The guy brought his arms out like some gunslinger waiting for Seifer to draw.

Seifer snapped his fingers and Rai and Fuu instantly got into their fighting positions. Axel waved his finger in mock protest. "Now, now, do you think that is fair? Three against one? It seems to me that you're too scared to fight me alone. Instead you have your buddies come up and help. I think you have an inferiority complex here." Axel ginned as Seifer's face showed his anger.

"Are you kidding me?" Seifer said his annoyance toward this outsider was rising extremely fast. He snapped his fingers again and Rai and Fuu backed down. "I can beat you myself I f I have too. This will be too easy." Seifer raised his Struggle sword straight out ready for the fight.

Axel raised his hand again. His smirk grew wider. That smirk was starting to really get on Seifer's nerves. "Now if you really want to show your not weak you'll do it in front of everyone. I'll take care of it. Meet back here in two hours. And be prepared to see the shock of your life." He walked up the street to market street and he was gone from sight.

Soon all over Twilight town, there were posters. Similar to the Struggle ad posters but these were announcing a different event.

YOU LIKE THE STRUGGLE BATTLES?

WELL NOW YOU GET TO SEE THE CURRENT CHAMPION, SEIFER, FACE OFF AGAIST A NEWCOMEMER TO THE BATTLES! COME TO THE SANDLOT AT 3:30 TODAY!

PS: IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE BATTLE AT ALL, GO ON TOP OF A ROOF!

Pence looked at these posters in utter confusion. The Struggle was already under way and suddenly out of nowhere these new posters appear? Something was unusual alright. Pence looked at his watch. It was 1:45 now; if he hurried he could go find Hayner and get good seats for this battle.

He found Hayner clearing out some old junk for an elderly man.

"Thanks a lot for the help, sonny," the man said in an old, wheezy but thankful tone.

Hayner smiled. "Not any trouble at all, sir." Hayner held his palm out and the old man gave him his muuny for helping.

"Hayner!" Pence yelled to his friend. Hayner turned around and gave Pence a friendly punch in the arm, that didn't hurt . . . much.

"What's going on?" Hayner said trying not to let his curiosity get the best of him. Pence didn't usually bother Hayner when he was working or go looking for him. They now met at the usual spot reading the letters from Olette. "Some big happening?"

"I don't know exactly," Pence said. "But there is this street brawl that gonna take place in the sandlot at 3:30. And I know Seifer's in it!" That's all Pence had too say. If there was a street brawl and Seifer was in it, it was just another chance for Hayner to watch Seifer get his pride taken down a couple of notches.

Hayner ran out of the alley way they were in and headed for the sandlot.

It was 3: 25 and everybody was in the sandlot. Just like they poster told them, everybody who wanted to watch the match was on top of some building. No one wanted to be left out if something big was going to happen. Everybody was here except the challenger to the champion.

"I knew it," Seifer exclaimed after he looked at Rai's watch, "he chickened out after all!" Seifer laughed at his comment. That guy had actually thought he could take on Seifer. Get real!

3:28. Still no sign of Axel. People were startling to get impatient. They were here for a fight and so far they were getting stood up. Some people started to leave but stopped when they heard footsteps coming down the street. A spiky, red haired boy about 18 or 19 came walking down the street. His hands in his pockets and a cocky grin on his face.

"Did you people could start without me? After all those posters I put up, I thought at least you people would have some patience." His grin grew wider as he walked into the sandlot. He looked at Rai, Fuu and Vivi with mock rebuke, "Now, now, we can't have anyone in the arena when things really _heat_ up! You three get on a roof so you'll have a good view." The three looked to their leader confused about what to do next. Seifer nodded his head.

By exactly 3:30 everyone except Axel and Seifer. Seifer held his Struggle sword readying his normal position: his arm stretched out completely. But Axel held nothing. There was no Struggle weapon in his hands. Nothing.

"Where's you weapon," Seifer said a small grin tugging at his face, "or you going to fight bare handed?"

Axel smirked again. And to Seifer that smirk was getting annoying. "You think I would come here without a weapon, did ya?" He put his hands to his sides. "I just like to keep them hidden." Axel spread his hands away from his sides more quickly and a burst of circular flame appeared there. A wave of gasp ran through the crowed as metal disk formed from the flame wheels. "I'd like you to learn why I was once called the Flurry of Dancing Flame!"

A giant ring of flame appeared around the sandlot, blocking all exits. _Now_ Seifer knew why the posters said to be on a roof if you wanted to watch. There was no escape from the inferno.

People started to scream in fear. None of them had ever seen such things. Besides, how many giant circles of fire have you seen? These people had reason to be scared.

"You ready for a fight now?" Axel said his smirk growing wider. "You should never, ever, have challenged a professional." The smirk vanished from Axel's face as he place one chakram in the air and the other on the ground. "BURN BABY!" he yelled. The ground instantly became like a crater of a volcano. The ground was hot yet it was not melting through Seifer's or Axel's cloths. But Seifer did feel a small amount of pain coming through his legs. This would be difficult if not impossible. How could he beat this guy?

"Okay!" Axel jumped into the flame disappearing completely. Seifer looked frantically around himself. Axel could come out of those flames any second from anywhere. Seifer looked to his left to see a bit of the flame bulge out from the rest of the circle.

"Take that!" Axel screamed as he emerged from the fire; the flames still licking his clothes. Seifer had no time to react as his opponent. He was knocked forward by what he thought was a gust of wind and the felt a sudden pain at his side. He looked down as saw something he didn't like: blood. His pure white sleeveless overcoat was no longer pure and white. It now had a new shade running from middle down. A shade much like crimson.

The crowd roared with gasp and shock. Sure every now and then in Struggle fight a little blood was knocked around but never like this. No guy had ever gotten a slash across his side like that. Sure, Seifer could be a bit of a jerk sometimes. **(Alright Bob!)** Seifer was a jerk all the time. **(Happy now!)** But this was getting out of hand. And Pence knew it.

"Hayner!" he cried his voice trembling as he watched the blood flow from Seifer's side. "We have to do something!" His arms were flailing about. He didn't know what to do. He was usually a calm voice of reason to Hayner, but this . . . he had never learned how to deal with stuff like this! He wasn't Sora or Riku! He was just Pence.

Hayner stood there; he was sweating. But it wasn't from the heat of the fire below. It was because he knew that Pence was right. He didn't know what to do. He looked down to Seifer and then to Pence who was racking his head for something to do. Hayner saw the way back down. "Hey, Pence!" he yelled to his frantic friend. "Come on!" Hayner beckoned to his friend as he ran down to fire escape that they had come up on.

Axel smirked at his handiwork. The guy needed to be brought down a couple of steps. Even though he now had a heart he still enjoyed doing stuff like this. His smirk grew wider when heard the crowd gasp. They needed to realize that there safe little existence was always under threat. Whether it be from him, the Heartless, the rest of Organization XIII, or somebody else. That was one of life little rules. Got it memorized?

Seifer staggered to his feat, dazed by his wound. "What do you think you're doing, you maniac?" Seifer said his voice trembling. "Why did you do that?"

Axel grin grew wider. "What do you think?" he sounded almost happy. "Come here I'll make it all stop. You shouldn't have been so antsy for a fight with a pro. I could easily rip you apart. And maybe I will."

Axel raised his hands; the chakrams floated freely from his hands. They span like a car wheel and flames flew around them. "You won't forget this!" Seifer threw his Struggle sword at Axel but it was knocked away by the chakrams. Seifer saw the chakrams him and Axel approach Seifer couldn't move or else be burned to cinders by the flaming disk. Axel raised his hands again and four columns of fire emerged from the fiery ground surrounding him. Seifer closed his eyes for fear of the fiery death engulfing him. He waited for a minute to no longer feel the heat of the columns or the circle of flame that kept them in the arena. He looked to see that they were both gone. Instead was a chakram at his neck. He saw the arm of its wielder. His eyes traveled up the arm to see the face of his opponent. The victor: Axel.

"So are you gonna do it?" Seifer said his voice calm though he hid his great fear. "You gonna slit my--"

"I'm not going to kill you, you dolt!" Axel cut-in. "This was a lesson and this town was student." Axel's face showed fully his attitude and sarcasm again. "Just bringing you down a couple steps of you high horse was a side benefit."

"HEY!" Axel turned his head to see two vaguely familiar faces. A skinny 16 year old boy with blond sweptback hair, camo pants, skull shirt and vest. The other was a round kid with a black hair pushed up through a sweat band on his forehead that made it look like his head was a volcano and erupted. He wore a Dogstreet jersey over a t-shirt and jeans. His face was covered in sweat like he woken up from a horrible dream. "Leave him alone!" the blond boy cried. There was an eerie silence surrounding them now.

Axel looked at the youth and shook his head. " You think that I'm gonna kill this brat?" he spat. "No," his voice became slick but full with attitude, "I came to teach you people a lesson. That you aren't safe from the dangers out there. I've seen the danger. I've fought the danger. And I bought you little of it. To show you that in this little town you need something better than a 'Dispensary Committee' to fight your battles for you. No if you'll excuse me I have to find a place to crash." Axel brought his chakrams away from Seifer's neck and they disappeared in the circles of flam they had appeared from. He put his hands in his pockets and started to walk away. Fuu, Rai, and Vivi helped their fallen leader to a med got him patched up. But nobody saw that guy with the flaming disk for the rest of the day.


	2. Revaltion of Events

Chapter 2 Revelation of the events

**I'M BACK!!**

Sora enjoyed being back home. Scratch that. That's a complete understatement. He was overwhelmed to home. He loved being able to go back to _his_ own room instead of having to camp out in the wild or be in some ­

strange building. But everything was flowing with honey and milk. He had gotten one of the worst chew outs in the history of chew outs from his parents, more so his mom. When he had come back from the battle with Xemnas with Riku and had reunited with everyone from the battle, he went back to his house to find a headquarters of people trying to find him, Riku and Kairi. Everybody stopped when they saw the three teenagers enter the house. Right up until a same woman yelling "MY BABY!" and wrapped herself tight around Sora. It took Riku and Kairi a grand total of half an hour to get Sora's mom off of him. Then the bad part began. After her very emotional embrace of having her son retune home, she got _extremely _mad at him. The list went on and on. 'Where have you been for the past year? Where did you get those weird cloths? Were you kidnapped and if so who were they? Where did you get those cuts and bruises? Blah blah blah. She wouldn't stop. She even asked what they were doing. Oh, yeah that was gonna be a tough one to answer. He couldn't exactly answer by saying "Hey, Mom, we went across the sea of the worlds and fought creatures of Darkness called Heartless and evil maniacs in a group called Organization XIII. So where is the pizza?" Oh yeah, that would not be the best thing to say. Especially while half the islands were in his living room.

After he and Riku got everyone except his mom, dad and Kairi out of the house, they decided to tell their tale from the beginning. They told about how Riku had opened the door in the Secret Place on the play island. How the islands were destroyed by the Heartless in the dark storm. How Sora got a mysterious key-like weapon and he had proof for that one. How Sora ended up in Traverse Town; looked for Riku and Kairi and met Leon, Cid, Yuffie, Aerith, Merlin, Donald and Goofy. About his adventures across the world and meeting the inhabitants. How he had fought against Xehanort's Heartless. How they fought against the Organization. And so on and so. When their memory failed them they brought out Jiminy's journal to refresh their memories. Every few minutes, mom or dad who ask a question or two. They were a very good audience. They had only two problems with the whole story was when Sora became a Heartless to save Kairi, ("Son, you could have been killed," his mother exclaimed.) and what Sora had been doing before had went to sleep and awoken in the mansion in Twilight town. ("A most peculiar puzzle," dad had mumbled to himself). Of course Sora couldn't answer that. He didn't know himself. But he knew that Ansem the wise had something to do with it. Of course it could have been something to make him stronger for all Sora knew.

But all that wasn't the only thing Sora didn't like. There was one more major problem: school. Yep. Now that he was back home he had to go back to school. Eventually, he had to tell everyone about his adventures. How could he not? Could you? Not that any of his teachers believed him, at least not until King Mickey had come for a visit while Sora and Kairi were in Biology. That was a shock. A little mouse with a giant gold key walking around talking to you, that's bound to raise some eyebrows. But Mickey couldn't save Sora from the dreads of education. He had 2 years of work to catch up on to be up with everyone else. Kairi had less to do because she came back for a while. But since they were missing, they were given everything was given to them slowly.

But know now school was out and now all he had to worry about was when to take a swim. At least that's how it was planned. Thanks to the Gummi ship, he had friends from all over coming to the Islands to see him. For instance, Kairi had invited Olette to spend a couple of days with them. ­

That meant showing her around the islands and showing here the best cuisine in the islands: popu fruit cake. That was the Sea-Salt ice cream of Destiny Islands. No one could get enough of it.

Now, he was basically part of a transit system between the worlds. He, Donald and Goofy would take people from different world to where they needed to go, mostly Radiant Garden. Cid would sometimes help too but he had enough duties working the Reconstruction Committee computer system by himself.

Today Sora was enjoying himself by walking hand-in-hand with Kairi along the beach. Today it was too hot to wear his normal black Drive suit so he wore swim trunks and Kairi in a two-piece pink bikini. They talked about anything really as they walked. He wanted to know what had happened to her during their time apart. While Kairi was just the opposite. She wanted to know what happened to _him_. So he consented and told her about all the friends he had met in his adventures.

". . . turns out that Luxord of Organization XIII," Sora told her with much enthusiasm as he could muster, "had taken the cursed medallions and Captain Jack--."

Sora's story was cut short by the sound of two boys screaming for their lives. They looked to where the screaming was coming from. They ran down the beach and were past by Tidus and Wakka who were screaming their heads off. "SHE"S CRAZY!" they screamed as they passed by. Sora turned his head expecting to see Selphie chasing them with her new numcukes.

Instead he saw a totally unfamiliar girl, about 18 or nineteen, with electric blond hair that had these two stripes of the hair rising up and then flowing back above the hair like insect antennae. She was very skinny and it showed in her skinny blue jeans, a yellow t-shirt that was overlapped by a tan, tasseled vest. Her face might have been beautiful if not for the red head next to Sora, and the fact her face was full of fury and rage. She was running with kunai knives between her fingers with ninja like grace. "You think you can throw your idiotic ball at my head and not get feel my knives up your--" She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Sora and Kairi. Her face went from blind rage to utmost distaste. Her upper lip began to curl and her blue eyes narrowed down to small dots. "Oh great it's the Keyblade brat," she said as cold as steel. "Why can't you leave your victims of your blade alone? You think that just because you beat and Marluxia that I'll let you walk all over me? HA!" She pulled her knives into fighting position with her arms crossed. Sora and Kairi looked at this woman in utter confusion. Who was she? And who was this 'Marluxia' she was talking about?

Sora and Kairi summoned their Keyblades and waited for the woman to attack. She smiled at their looks of confusion. "So," she said in playful voice, "it seems Naminé re arranged your memories so not to remember Marluxia, Vexen, Axel, Castle Oblivion, or good young Larxene."

Sora didn't know any of those names except Axel. "Who are you?" he said. "Are you a member of Organization XIII? I know Axel. He kidnapped Kairi but then sacrificed himself to allow us to defeat Xemnas. But all those other people you mentioned I don't know." Sora held his Keyblade out. He didn't know if this woman would attack them or not.

He got his answer when the kunai disappeared beams of lightning. "It wouldn't be as fun getting back at you for killing me if you don't remember. Especially not when you're on a date." Her eyes flashed over Kairi. "You shouldn't have your dates on a day when I can get you back for making me fade back into darkness."

­

For there on there was a new mean girl added to the islands: Larxene. She was nice in nature but when you got her mad (which Tidus and Wakka learned never to do) she was fierce and sadistic warrior. Of course, Riku meet her. But unlike Sora, he did recognize her.

"SORA!" Riku yelled when Sora and Kairi brought Larxene down to the Playground Island. "WHAT DO YOU HAVE FOR A BRAIN? A ROCK?" As you probably can tell he is not happy. "YOU BROUGT A MEMBER OF ORGANIZATION XIII DOWN TO WHERE WE HANG OUT? US! THE KILLERS OF ORGANIZATION XIII! YOU KILLED HER BACK IN CASTLE OBLIVION!"

Riku was yelling to the top of his lungs but Larxene didn't seem to notice him. She was more interested in the popu fruit that grew from the long ways tree. She took one of the fruit off the tree and put it in her pocket. "You know this fruit would make good Sunday," she said more to herself than to them. She looked at Riku with a smirk. "Hey aren't you that dark kid that the Heartless took over? You really need a haircut. You look like Vexen got to you." Her smiled grew wider, "And that you all people should know who that is."

Riku clenched his fist. Sora still had no idea of what she was talking about. "You're," Sora said his voice showing his confusion, "a member of Organization XIII?"

She brought her finger up in a mocking reproach. "_Was_. I was a member of the Organization. As you probably can tell, I have true emotions because I have heart. Somehow, I got my heart after _you_ made me fade back into darkness. I don't know how but I'm here and I'm going to see who the strongest person in these islands is." The Kunai reappeared in her hands. "Let's see who fare against me now that were out of Castle Oblivion."

Sora and Riku summoned their Keyblades and readied themselves for her attack.

"Hey, Sora, Riku!" yelled a very squawk like voice. "We're here!"

Sora looked across the bay to see a small boat carrying three passengers. At the head was a dog about 5ft tall wearing a green zipper long-sleeve shirt, a black vest over it; and next to him was a duck about 3ft in stature, he wore blue zipper wizard robes. And doing the steering was a mouse a little taller than the duck, he wore a blue and red zipper cloths as well with little yellow pockets. "Hello, everybody," the little mouse said in a _extremely _squeaky voice.

The King, Donald and Goofy landed on the shore of the Island and immediately rushed to their meet their comrades. Donald and Goofy tackled Sora to the ground which left Kairi in a furious state of giggles. Mickey ran to Riku, but instead of running and doing that twist thing they did when they arrived last time. Riku and the King shook hands. Nothing to exciting. Just like formal business.

"You can introduce me to your friends, bra—Sora."

The reunited group turned around to see Larxene, hanging from a palm tree. "I don't like being left in the dark," she added with a wink and a smirk, "especially around the defeaters of my Organization."

The King, Donald and Goofy had the normal reaction to hearing that. They pulled out their weapons (or in Mickey's case summoned) and stood defensively against her. She jumped down from the tree but did not show any preparation of ­

violence. Donald let his guard down and looked at her perplexed. "I don't get it," he pondered, "If she a member of the Organization, why doesn't she attack us.'

Larxene's smirk grew wider and wider as she watched Goofy and King Mickey fall to the same confusion. "I am no longer a Nobody. I am fully human and I have a heart. But I can still kick your if I wanted to. Now let's talk more about how you guys got here."


	3. The Slapping of the Face

Chapter 3 The Slapping of the Face

Hayner and Pence went about their usual business. They had just come from their homes and were on their way to the Usual Spot for the daily tradition of hanging out. After yesterday's Seifer fire smack down. They were in great need of some time to think about the events that were taking place in Town.

"You know," said Pence, "I hope we don't have to deal with that Axel guy. We couldn't even handle those white things, you got your butt kicked by Sora—"

"Hey!" Hayner interrupted in his usual boisterous manner, "he used _special_ techniques. How was I to know that he could do that?"

Pence sighed. "I was just saying that we can't handle him if he decides to teach another lesson and we end up being the students. We aren't that good at fighting. Let's face it, we're amateurs." Pence pulled the curtain back so they could enter the Usual Spot.

Hayner was about to retort but he was stopped by the sight he saw in their hangout. On the couch that Olette usually occupied was a red-haired man. A spiky red haired man who was fast asleep, his mouth hanging wide open, drool sliding down his face. They had a pyromaniac in their hangout.

Pence saw the small effects that Axel had brought with him. Lying on the box Pence sat on was a pitch black coat that would stretch to a person's ankles. Lying up against the couch were the two metal disks that he had used to defeat Seifer. But lying all around him were CD cases filled with programs that Pence didn't even understand. It was stuff like '_Vexen's Research'_, '_Riku Data_', '_Apprentice Reports_', '_Organization Blueprints'_,_ 'Xosnaj Experiments,'_ and so on and so on. Not one made any sense.

Hayner cautiously approached the sleeping Pyromaniac with a look of total fear on his face. His hand reached out, grabbed Axel's shoulder and shook it vigorously. Immediately he was jerked awake. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he got up off the couch and grabbed one of the metal disks at his feet. "Haven't you ever heard the phrase never wake a sleeping lion?" he raised the disk up and flames started to dance around it. Hayner could feel the heat radiating from it.

"Hey!" cried Pence. "We just were wondering what you're doing here. The last time you were here you dragged Kairi into some black portal. After yesterday's demonstration, we are in no mood to face you again."

Axel lowered his chakram and sat back down on the couch. He grabbed a black and red backpack from behind it. "You didn't catch me at my best," he said as he began to pick the programs up. "I needed a place to crash and this was the first place I found."

"Why not a hotel or something," Hayner blurted out. "There are plenty of them all over the city. You could have easily gotten—"

"Because," Axel cut him off, "I'm broke. That's what happens when you're dead for a year and suddenly reappear in a Corridor of Darkness. It's a good thing that computer was connected here or else I would have to gone back to the World that Never Was."

Hayner and Pence did not get a single word he said but took it in stride. With that story of Kairi's and the rest of the stuff that had happened last year, they were getting used to this sort of thing.

"So," Axel continued, "If you want me out of here you could direct me to a better and _free_ place to go. That would be very kind of you." Even though you couldn't see it, Axel was inwardly smiling under his emotionless expression. That was what he was truly a master of, manipulation, not pyrotechnics. Manipulation was his business and it always came in handy to use blackmail as a resort. But he was using some truth in his words. Since he had come back and only Kingdom Hearts knew how he did, he had only some munny to purchase the blanks to get the data out of the Organization computers before Maleficent and Pete learned how to hack into them. That would have been a disaster.

Hayner and Pence looked at each other worried about where this was going. Despite the fact that he was one of the most dangerous men they had ever met, he didn't seem like he was hiding anything. If they wanted him out of their hangout, they would have to take him somewhere where he could stay until he found a job or something. And with all the kids out of school now, there was little chance of him finding a job in Twilight Town, at least not for a while.

Hayner looked at the blank-faced pyro with a look of annoyance. "Alright, fine," he said, exasperated, "you can stay at my place for a while, but only if you tell us who the heck you are and what the heck you're doing here. Deal?"

Axel's inward smile made it through his face somewhat in the form of a small grin. "You got me," he said, "I'll tell you, but what you have to understand that most of the juicier stuff needs to go into Sora's ears only. Got it memorized?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So let me get this straight," said Hayner as he waited for Axel to get out of the shower. "You were once a creature called a Nobody. A thing that had lost its heart but continued to live. You were number eight in Organization XIII, a group of the most powerful Nobodies. Your best friend, Roxas, who was Sora's nobody left the Organization because unlike the rest of you he didn't have the memories of his former life. He was captured by Riku, Sora's best friend and some guy named Ansem who put him in the other Twilight Town with a new memory where he and I were best friends." Hayner had brought Axel to his house. Immediately his mother asked who the man was. He didn't want to tell her that he was the guy who had beaten Seifer. That news had spread across the city like Hayner on a box of Sea-Salt ice cream. His mother was rather protective of him and his friends. It had taken Olette and Kairi four hours just to get her to listen to where Olette was going. Then it went on to Olette's parents. After stashing Axel in his room, Hayner told his mom that Axel was Fuu's cousin from the country. Thankfully she had believed him, since Fuu's mother was her best friend. "SO you were sent to the other Twilight Town and found that he was being manipulated by this Ansem guy to rejoin with Sora who was sleeping in the basement of the mansion. You were ordered to kill Roxas if he didn't return with him. Roxas fought against you and you didn't follow your orders to kill him and let him go. So you then kidnapped Kairi hoping to fuel Sora up with so much hate that he would turn back into one of those black things you called Heartless and Roxas would be released and you would have your best friend back. Have I got it straight so far?" he said into the steaming bathroom.

"You memorize pretty well," the red-head said from within the steam. "Unfortunately for my plans, Kairi got away from me and another member of Organization XIII caught her. Saix put her in the Castle dungeon to bait Sora into coming there so they could finish him off. But Sora was able to find out how to get there by using the Corridor of Darkness I had left in the virtual twilight Town. While in the Corridor he got trapped by some lesser Nobodies. I came in and helped to defeat most of them but then reinforcements came and we were surrounded. So to make sure Sora would get to the Castle I used up all my power to defeat all the Nobodies and finish the way to the Castle. I then faded away. And then after I don't know how long, I appeared in front of the mansion. Now I am in a sixteen year old's shower who probably doesn't even shave yet."

"Hey," yelled Hayner from outside the door, "I had a goatee but it got in the way of kissing chicks."

Axel held in his laugh. After all his time as a manipulator he could easily see that Hayner had never kissed, and from the way he responded, Axel also saw that he was a little shy in that department. "Now hand me my clothes," Axel said as he got out of shower, "unless you want see my scars from my fight with Roxas." No sooner did he say that, when his threads came flying through the slowly dissipating steam.

"Get dressed. Sora sent me letter that he would be here sometime today."

XXXXXXXXX

The Gummi Ship floated above Twilight Town in the vast of the Sea of the Worlds. Since he wasn't in the pilot's chair this time he had a chance to just gaze out at the sunset illuminated world.

_It's good to be home,_ spoke a voice inside Sora's head. _For a while I didn't think I'd ever see that glorious sunset ever again. _

"Are you saying that I can't take care of myself, bro?" Sora's thoughts replied to the other presence.

_You're more than capable than surviving a fight. I was worried that all that homework was going to devour us during the year. _

Sora chuckled inwardly. "That or Larxene would finish the job." The young (and extremely fiery) electrokinetic had joined them on the voyage to Twilight Town. Other than the fact that she had fought with Riku on who got to fly, she had not been any sort of problem. She had spent most of the trip just staring out the window, her eyes distant from everyone else. Sora could really relate to her. He could see that she was dreaming about the other worlds and if her comrades had come back. They had a lot in common, but he had a girl. The best in all of the worlds.

The Ship began its decent. Even though this was only Riku's second time driving the Gummi Ship, he was a natural at its controls. Sora didn't need to be jealous of Riku. He had no more need to compete with him about Kairi; he had won fair and square.

They were transported from the Gummi Ship down into Central Station. Thankfully nobody was looking that way. It would be bad for your sanity if you saw five teenagers, a mouse, a duck, and a dog materialize out beams of light. That wouldn't be good for a woman on her way to work who had a bad heart condition.

_Let's not go on any trains this time, eh?_ Roxas said, his smile showing through Sora. _I'd rather stay here for a while._

Hayner, Pence, and Axel made their way to the train station. After their conversation, Axel and Hayner found Pence to go see the arrival of Sora, Olette, Kairi, and whoever else came with them. Pence had been a bit apprehensive of Axel, but he got over it quickly. On the way to the station from Pence's family apartment, Axel regaled them with stories of his Nobody life.

"Then, we took the pint and spiked it with some of Xigbar's best vodka. Demyx danced around the castle like a monkey for seven hours, and then Roxas and I steered him into Larxene's room. That was out of bonds territory to all members of the Organization, even the boss. She gave him two black eyes and a nasty scar across his back. He never figured out why he was in there."

The boys laughed so hard at Axel's stories. For people without hearts, they could pull some of the most random things. No matter what happened in the Organization 'Prank War,' as it was called by all but this 'boss,' Axel and Roxas seemed to always come out on top.

As they made their way up to Central station they could see the group they had come to see coming out with smiles all around, right until they saw the spiky red head laughing along with the two young boys of Twilight Town.

Awkward!

Of course, Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flame, the hunter of the rouge Organization members-turned-rouge himself, was scared! He wasn't looking at the duck, the mouse, the dog, the boy with silver or brown hair, or the girl with brown hair. No, he was terrified of the blond towering with anger. Overwhelming anger.

Oh yeah, he was in big doo doo.

The blond smiled innocently at him. "Aww, is Axeicens not happy to see Larxene? I'm hurt," she cooed. The pyro didn't say a word. He was stunned.

Olette looked at the blond woman with a raised eyebrow and then stepped forward to the frozen red-head.

SMACK!

"That's for beating up Pence and Hayner," she said stuffily and then walked back over to the two approving females and the multiple confused males.

This slap knocked Axel out of his daze and he said "I didn't deserve that."

Oh, it wasn't over.

Next up to the plate was Kairi, who also strutted over to him and once again . . .

SMACK! (Only a bit harder)

"That's for kidnapping me, you jerk!" She walked back over and gave both Larxene and Olette high-fives.

"I might have deserved that," he said with a bit of a Cheshire grin.

But as quickly as that grin came onto his face, it vanished. He curled up behind the two Twilight boys, much to their eternal confusion.

Picture it: Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flame, Number VIII of Organization XIII, was scared as hell! He knew exactly that if Kairi and Olette had just slapped him, _she_ would do oh so much worse! He held no reserves against showing his fear of her. She was called the Savage Nymph for a reason. And that particular reason did nothing for Axel's health.

Now Hayner's perspective on this whole thing. He had just listened through about two hours of this guy telling stories of the things he'd seen and the monsters and people he'd fought. He had taken out Seifer, one of the toughest people in the city, in all of about two seconds (the rest of the fight had really just been to show off). Either this girl was something to be scared off or Axel was a real good liar. Most likely both.

Larxene, on the other hand, was laughing her butt off, at least on the inside. She still held that innocent look on the outside. She was really enjoying this. She wanted to savor it. This guy had betrayed her and Marluxia. They could have succeeded in their rebellion of Castle Oblivion if only he had stayed with her— _them_. Vexen had already been removed. They could have won, but thanks to him, she got beat up by a puppet and a brat that didn't even remember the fights! Oh, that burned her up. Ironic, considering she was about to trash a pryokenetic.

"How 'bout you get out from behind them, Axel?" she said indigently.

He poked his head out from behind the blond boy with his red eyebrows raised. "Yeah right! The moment I get out from here, you'll kill me. I know you. You'll probably shove those knives of yours right through my precious spot."

A collective snort of laughter could be heard. Axel glared at the people who dared laugh at him. What he either ignored or just plain didn't notice was that Larxene hadn't laughed at all.

"Oh, come on you big baby!" she yelled at the cowering man. "I promise: no knives, no slappage." All the while no one had noticed one of her hands slip into her pocket and the fingers cross.

Axel looked up to Hayner who shrugged, then to Pence who did also. Sora and his group were no help as they were stifling their laughs. He sighed. "Fine!"

He got up off the ground and approached the young blond woman, she did likewise and they met in the middle. Axel grinned a little, "So I guess this means no hard feelings?"

POW!

He never saw it coming. With her lightning reflexes, she smashed her fist into his left cheek. Ouch. It knocked him flat onto the ground.

"Never said I wouldn't punch, you ass!" She walked away from the prostate former-Nobody just as Hayner stuck his head over him with a smirk on his face.

"You didn't deserve that one?" he said, the smirk never leaving his face.

"No, that one I definitely deserved." He got up and you could hear very clearly the sound of his jaw popping back into place as he messed with it. "I never knew you could punch so hard!"

She smiled sadistically. "You should see what my mother can do, and then you'll be impressed."

Pause. Larxene's mom? What? Those were Axel's thoughts. She had never mentioned her family before. He had never even heard her surname.

Now let's look from Sora's perspective. #1: Crazy chick appears out of nowhere. #2: she says that she is a former Organzation member and Sora killed her. #3: They find Axel in Twilight Town when he to is supposed to be dead. #4: Three girls go up and either slap or punch the hell out of Axel. #5: now parents. Yep, normal day.

"Larxene, what's your last name?"

Axel had never seen a bigger smirk. She absolutely loved all the attention. "Why, Axel! Didn't I tell you? It's Nixel!"

Axel's jaw dropped. He knew that name! Oh, he knew that name. Nixel!

"As in Nixel, the Riches Processing company?" he was absolutely flabbergasted and had a short case of shock when her head went up and down slowly. "You've got to be kidding me! The Nixels have everything from gold to opals! That would make you—"

"Richer than God," she said with a devious little smile that sent shivers down Axel's spine. She grabbed him by the forearm and began to drag him down to Market Street. Shopping with Larxene is one of the worst punishments that any mortal man would never want to endure. The others followed behind for about five minutes until they could see Axel being drug behind Larxen by a belt around his neck, multiple bags in his hands.

_I am so screwed_, was the thought running through the 'poor' redhead's brain. It was going to a long week stay.

**I am so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so sorry for leaving this thing to sit for this long. It was never supposed to have to wait like that but of course, those who know _Legacy_ know that I get a bit distracted and I've just gotten off school today so know I can write this, _Bet of the Law_, and my own book, drum roll please: _The Legends of Avalon The Shining Inferno_. This is 1st in a series that I am working on. **

**There is one good thing that has come out of all this. I have expounded much in my mind about the plot so I await great responses for everything. Remember: I (+feindslayer) am always watching! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I have no idea why I just did that. **

**Now! For the first time in the History of _The Next Life_: REVIEW ANSWERS!**

**AyakaShimizu****- Nah, I use the word 'the' too much. So, the story finally get an update and in about four more chapters I will introduce myself—I mean the villains of this story. If you want their names, I think I put them on my profile. I didn't want to make Axel too mean and Seifer really had it coming. He'll be really important later. **

**uchiwasasuke79u-Well of course he wouldn't get one scratch. Axel is a boss in the game even though he did take it easy on both Sora and Roxas, and his job in the Organization was to remove traitors. You'd have to be strong to do that. And the chapters weren't too long. It was only that a part of Chp 3 got uploaded with Chp 2. Accident.**

**fiendslayer****-Well if you don't do scenes then the world will implode and the chipmunk Vikings will rule Gallifrey. MUHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Well let's move on and sorry for the wait.**


	4. He Gets inside your Head

Chapter 4 He gets inside your head.

The week held many surprises for the guests of Twilight Town. For one, wherever they went with Axel, the people were either utterly terrified of him or they worshipped the ground he walked on. He had been given _gifts_ for what no one but the locals knew. Sora really didn't want to know what trouble Axel had gotten himself into.

_Probably beat up someone in a flashy form,_ piped up Roxas from within Sora. _That would be in his style. _

Sora, really couldn't argue with his brother's statement. Now that they were one being again, they talked all the time now, of course so did Naminé and Kairi. And then in turn, Roxas and Naminé could converse without the knowledge of Sora and Kairi. Sora thought it was a bit unfair, but there was nothing he could do about it so . . .

The best part of the whole thing was the preparations for the Struggle. Sora, Riku, and Axel had no real intentions of signing up, much to the dismay of the manager of the battles. He had been looking forward to some real exciting fights. Though Sora could really sympathize with him. If it weren't for the facts that they were going to train Hayner to beat Seifer, it would be the same thing as every year. And to everyone's horror, Larxene planned to go in to the competition. The good thing was that she wasn't allowed to use her kunai. She would have to learn how to use those 'useless pieces of shit' as he called them. Though, to everyone's dismay, she could still use her lightning abilities.

Sora wandered the streets of the town. Though he had only been here a few times, he felt very at home. It was calm and peaceful (that is of course, if you didn't count the few pranks that Axel would play on you), and was generally a very happy place. Sure it had its less than nice elements, if you will, but what community didn't. He just wished that more people could appreciate that peace.

_Don't we all, bro._ spoke Roxas solemnly from within. _But we rarely get what we want._

Sora mockingly scoffed. _I got exactly what I wanted, and so did you. Kairi and Naminé. Though it is still a bit weird to know that someone inside you is dating the person inside your girlfriend._

Roxas chuckled a bit. _Ok, well, more like that we don't get exactly what we want exactly when we want it._ _I just wanted to meet you and I got to after being locked in a fake Twilight Town, living a lie, get beaten up by my own minions and my best friend. There wasn't much I had to do to meet you, now was there. _

The two boys laughed heartily, though to the occasional onlooker, it looked like a spiky haired youth was laughing loudly to himself. Crazy. That's what a few of Sora's teachers thought he was, too. Of course, they first thought it was the wild stories he was spreading around. Then after the 'mouse visits,' they started to believe that he had schizophrenia. They thought that he and another personality were fighting for control of the body. They were half right. Even Sora's mother started to believe them. He hadn't told her about Roxas still being able to talk to him. His father had given him a wink but had never pressed the subject.

After a bit of a grocery run, Sora headed back to Hayner's place. They were officially staying at a local hotel. Well, they had planned to, but his mother had insisted that they stay there. Turns out that his house went above and beyond the word 'house'. It was really more of a small estate in the city. His was one of the richest families in the town, but no one had a big head on that. Nobody was really poor. His dad had just gotten lucky with a scratch ticket he had picked up at a store and got some big bucks. In said house, there were at least ten different spare bedrooms. Two of which were group rooms which had at least five beds if there was large party of random meddling kids in the nearby area. Sora and males would be in one and the girls would be in the other. Hayner would be in his own room and Pence and Olette would go back to their own homes.

Now of course we're all wondering what Sora had gotten from his grocery trip. Why would he need them at this huge house? I'm sure as they are well off enough to have ten extra rooms they would have enough to provide for everyone's needs. Which they did. Course he wanted to get something special for their first night back in Twilight Town. Sea Salt Ice Cream!

Upon entering the 'Hayner estate,' he was immediately assaulted with a fanfare of noisemakers, yells of SURPRISE and other exclamations! The lights were flipped on to show everyone wearing those silly little cone shaped birthday hats. There was a sign in the back with a little design of chibi versions of everyone doing a little peace sign. Axel himself was hanging upside down from a rafter with sparklers in his hands being a makeshift explosive chandelier, all the while looking very sullen.

"Uh, guys," Sora stammered, "you do know that my birthday is not for two more months, right?"

The hall rang with laughs from all save Axel who was having his mouth stuffed with sparklers by an innocently smiling Larxene. Riku gave a good pat on the back. "This isn't for your birthday, Sora."

This definitely piped Sora's interest. "Oh, and if this is someone else's birthday then your timing is off. Wait till they come in."

"No Sora," said Kairi, picking up where Riku stopped while lacing her fingers with his, "this is a party just so we can have a party. No great darkness trying to swallow us whole, no white freaks trying to kidnap us, and nothing to keep any us separated." She have him a quick peck on the lips and took the bag of Sea-Salt Ice cream from him and put in the already ice cream full freezer.

This was definitely going to be a fun night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

One the other side of town, the stars made their way into the sky and a lone boy walked through the alley ways near the Sandlot. His white half jacket was nowhere in sight. He had discarded it because the slice through the side of it reminded him of his defeat. His hair was now free and the blond locks seemed unkempt, even for Seifer.

"How! Why!" he yelled into the increasing darkness around him. "I'm supposed to be the strongest guy in town! Not some fire freak with weird hair! I fought hard for my respect in this town, and this guy struts in and makes a fool out of me."

He kicked a trashcan. He paid the noise no head, nor the cat that shrieked when it was knocked from inside the can. Oh, yeah, he was pissed off! No one should have the glory except him! He'd worked too hard to be upstaged by some outsider! This wasn't how the world worked. Seifer was always supposed to be on top. Period. There wasn't any loophole. That was it. But yet that Sora boy and this Axel guy beat him without any effort. Axel almost killed him. And gave him a nasty scar on his left side.

"You are weak."

Seifer turned immediately. He had heard that voice. It was cool, calm, collected, dark, ominous, and it sent shivers up Seifer's back. He couldn't tell where it was coming from. It seemed all around him, yet the sentence seemed almost like it had never happened. Like it was a ghost in his memory.

"I am no ghost. You are."

There it was again! But now a face came with the voice. He was very serious faced with an angular face with long silver hair that seemed to float around him. He wore black leather with multiple straps and the leather bulged out at his waist like huge red tipped black claws. There were two other very noticeable features about this man. Protruding from his waist and his left shoulder blade were _wings!_ Black raven wings. They didn't look fake and the way they seemed to move when he walked seemed to suggest that they were real. And attached to a belt at his waist was an insanely long katana. The slight curve seemed to last forever. But no matter how strange this man looked in Seifer's opinion, he felt his blood freeze, and his heart stop with fear. Seifer was paralyzed. His brain was screaming for him to run and never to look back, but his body wouldn't react. Nothing seemed to be going his way.

"W-Who are you?" he managed to stutter out. That was the best he could do.

The man seemed to chuckle. "What a pity. You showed too much promise to just freeze up on me."

"Who are you?" he said again, it definitely sounded much braver than he felt.

The man laughed again, but more inhuman. "I am the chosen one of Jenova. I am Sephiroth."

Seifer racked his brain to see if he had ever heard either of these names. Nope. "Never heard of you."

Sephiroth scoffed. "I am not surprised. This town is very secluded; you wouldn't know the goings on of Midgar. I have been watching you for some time. You show great promise for even greater power. Yet you are hindered."

At the word 'power,' Seifer's eyes lit up. He was definitely interested. "What do you mean hindered?"

He smiled. "You are kept down by the light. If you open your heart to the great engulfing darkness, the power will overflow. You are now weak. The light's champions have shown you how weak you are with your light. Cast it away! You wish to become strong; I will teach you. The darkness can overwhelm anything." He held out his black gloved hand. The silver haired swordsmen smiled ever so slightly. "What do you say, Seifer?"

Seifer didn't notice that he had never given his name. He never noticed the yellow eyes forming all around the alleyway. He never saw the black and red heart symbols all around the place. Nor did he see the white and grey creatures. He only saw Sephiroth. The man who would lead him to power. The power to crush those who would dare challenge his superiority.

He grasped Sephiroth's hand tightly. The world went dark after that. Seifer could only see himself grasping Sephiroth's hand in agreement. "It is done!" he said, with a wicked smile coming on to his face.

Darkness began to wrap itself around Seifer's legs! He tried to call for help but it seemed his voice had betrayed him. He had never feared anything like this before. Not even the blade of Axel. No, this was much worse. This was cold, evil and it was devouring him!

The darkness grew into his body; seeping though his cloths like water. Seifer fell to the ground trying to scream, but all vocal ability had left him. He struggled to grab a hold of anything.

In these few second, he felt pathetic. He didn't feel superior to anyone. But that didn't matter, he would fight this! It had no right to overcome him! He would fight! FIGHT!

"Why struggle?" the cooing tone of Sephiroth came as he bent low before Seifer, a smug smile spreading across his flawless face. "You wanted this. You wanted the darkness to give you power and it will. But you must accept it. Good day to, you mister Seifer." He stood up and walked away, disappearing into the endless night.

"SEPHIROTH!" Seifer screamed, his voice finally returning to him. He said no more after that. As the darkness wrapped over his mouth and consumed his whole body.

The shadow receded to show a Neoshadow Heartless moving about. He twitched around then sank into the ground leaving a black cloaked husk.

No one else heard any of this.

**MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Random appearance of the greatest Final Fantasy villain ever! Or is it? Guess you'll have to find out . . . Well, now that school is out, I am getting as much done as possible and I just started a new job, but shouldn't mess with my writing schedule at all as the boss lets me type when no customers are in. My best friend's grandmother is the boss. That is fiendslayer if you're wondering. Now, we move on. I am going to out on a limb and say it was somewhat awkward writing the first part for some reason but the moment Sephiroth came in, it all seemed to flow. If anyone can tell me why, I'd really like to know. And, does anyone know any good pictures of a cloaked person and not Organization XIII. **

**Now, YOU AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A HOUND DOG! But seriously Reviews!**

**Flowergirl220-**** thanks for editing, it's good that I let you see this one so just in case, how is Axel a pervert? He betrayed Larxene and let Sora kill her because in his orders from Xemnas to remove all traitors the Organization. He had Sora and a Vexan-made-Riku-Replica kill her and had Sora kill Marluxia. He killed Vexan himself and had Riku Replica kill Zexion. The real Riku killed Lexaeus. That killed off all the members in Castle Oblivion. And that's Hayner's mom who is the overprotective room. And I had no intention of redoing an entire chapter seeing as only the end was needed. Axel's past will be reviled later along with Larxene's along with multiple others. And I will apologize as much as I need to and as I left this story to rot for a year, I needed to apologize. **

**Fiendslayer- can I get a wolf coat too? And if anyone can find me and fiendslayer, I give you all cookies! And maybe a pickle. **

**Good so everyone, so long farewell, and may life's road lead us to great things. **


	5. I owed them a fovour'

Chapter 5 'I owed them a favor'

The Town was in a state of euphoria. The Struggle competition would start in a few hours. Hayner had been pushed and pulled through the ringer so many times, he was a shoe-in to win against Seifer, who was last year's champ. The only problem with their plans was Larxene. Her drive to prove herself after being beaten by Sora, though he remembered it not, was as fiery as ever; and even though Sora wasn't fighting, she was determined to win.

She had planned to find Seifer, to, how can I put this lightly, show him who he was up against. She scoured the entire city. And, since she couldn't use the Corridors of Darkness, she had to search on foot. Very exhausting. And she never found him! Oh, she was ticked. Larxene of coursed used Axel as a punching bag to handle her frustration over that little punk who had the nerve to get himself lost in his own town!

Now let us watch as Hayner has a nervous breakdown. He heard that Seifer had disappeared and figured that if Seifer was gone he must have something big planned.

"I'm not going just to be humiliated!" said the completely irrational blond boy. He had locked and barricaded himself in the bathroom with a chair and a bar of soap.

"Come on," came the urging of his 'ungirlfriend' Olette, "your acting like a baby! He's probably just at his house!"

"Yeah right," came the blond's reply, "Siefer would never sit on his butt while everyone else was training! He's got something planned."

This had been going on for the last thirty minutes. Axel and Larxene had already left and Sora and his companions were waiting for Hayner. Sora was not the most patient person in all of the worlds.

"OH, COME ON!" screamed Sora. He was already agitated that he wouldn't get to compete, and if Hayner didn't hurry, they wouldn't even get to see the finals. "How hard is it to drag a guy out of his own house?"

The ever observant and ever needing a haircut Riku leaned against the wall of the newly christened 'Hayner Estate'. He chuckled at Sora's words. "Oh," he began deeply while smiling, "Sora, don't you remember when Kairi, me, your dad, and your mom had to pry you off the doorframe to make you go back to high school?"

Sora pouted slightly and glared daggers at his best friend, but stopped when a pair of lips brushed his cheek. Kairi giggled at his blushing face. He was so easy.

"Alright," Sora said, trying to hide his tomato face by bending his head low, "but if he doesn't get down in five minutes, we're outta here." His friends agreed without a complaint.

They didn't have to wait long as they saw Olette dragging the elusive Hayner by his ear with Pence watching from behind, trying to hold his laughter in.

"Ow, OLETTE!" No matter how much he screamed, the blond could not escape her iron grasp. "Let me go!" He was able pull himself free from the powering orange wearing girl. His face was red from embarrassment as the Islanders were laughing to his expense. "Let's go!" he said quickly as he grabbed his struggle bat and ran out the front door as fast as his legs would carry him.

It didn't take long for them to calm down enough, and to regain the ability to breath, and to head out of the house and go to the Sandlot to watch the matches. Riku was particularly interested. One, he had only taught Hayner a bit of his fighting style. To be quick, agile and to strike without mercy. Sora, in his eternal stupidity, had completely forgotten to tell the older boy how the 'stupid game' worked.

It felt good for Sora to see the town finally at ease. Though most of his memories of the town were Roxas' and everything was familiar to him, he still wished he could stay longer and explore the entirety of it. Mainly the parts that Ansem the Wise hadn't been able to fabricate in his Virtual Twilight Town. The best part of the whole thing was without the Organization, the remaining Heartless and Nobodies were left leaderless and their sightings were ever dwindling. That meant that Sora wouldn't have to worry about any effusions (yes, he finally figured out what that meant) of Heartless and Nobodies.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The Sandlot and the surrounding rooftops were jam-packed, much to the effect of the Axel-incident, as it was now called. People filled the area and everyone was eager for the spectacle to begin. Vendors had setup shop and were selling Sea-Salt Ice-cream along with the classic flavors like Vanilla and chocolate. Others were selling little trinkets like smaller versions of the Struggle weapons and little pamphlets for each of the contestants who would be competing. Some guy even had little dolls of Hayner, Seifer, Setzar, Larxene and others. In Riku's and Mickey's opinions, that was going just a tad bit overboard.

Each one of the combatants waited in a little area talking amongst themselves. Larxene and Axel could be spotted from miles away with their hair and the fact that they had decided to wear their cloaks, just not zipped up. They looked a bit out of place. Most of the people who had come, wore either brighter or neutral colors mixed in with each other. With their yellow, red and black clothing (but mostly black), they stood out like sore thumbs. Hayner, who was talking to Axel, had not changed his appearance for any of this and was confident that the extra muscle and bit of speed he had acquired over the last two weeks would be enough to beat out all the contestants. Setzar was basking in all that was his fan club, which consisted of love struck teenage girls who were all begging for his autograph, his jacket, a bit of his hair, a kiss, a marriage, and the occasional wish for his child.

However, the weirdest thing about the area was Seifer, or rather, the lack there of. Sora looked everywhere and even jumped up onto one of the roofs, but the white trench coat wearing jerk was nowhere to be found. Sora even re-did his search, thinking that Seifer might have changed his wardrobe like Axel and Larxene. Nope. But, Seifers' cronies were there alright. Fuu, Rai(ya know), and Vivi were all there. They were standing in a corner of the lot, huddled in the shadows.

Sora jumped back down and pushed his way through the crowd with an 'excuse me' there and a 'sorry ma'am' here. When he finally got over to them, he was shocked. He had never seen them look so downcast. Rai's shoulders were slumped, Vivi looked like, well, Vivi, and Fuu looked like she had been crying. Her eyes were red and splotchy, and it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to see that there were bags under her eyes as well. Yeah, She was so distraught that her normally combed over hair was parted so that she looked a lot like Kairi, just with silver hair.

"Hey, guys," Sora began awkwardly. He was trying to think of a way to ask 'what's up with you guys' without being a total ass. It didn't look like it had been long from since those red eyes had let the faucets run. This was hard! "So, Rai, you gonna compete?" _Yeah! That's gotta be a safe subject_!

Rai cocked his head to the side and said, "Nah, ya' know, couldn't get past the last competition. The finals are for Seif--!" he just then realized what he had begun to say when he looked at the shorter grey haired teen. That one syllable had caused her to start crying with all the power of a waterfall back on the islands. One look into those puffy eyes told Sora a lot. Mostly pain, sadness and loss.

But before Sora could inquire why, Fuu ran! She was running from him and right out of the Sandlot, knocking people out of the way. Sora and Rai tried to follow but her small stature proved to her advantage as she slipped from their view very quickly. Vivi, who was eager to be of service, ducked under the legs of a few people and left the two taller boys alone to hope that the strange kid could find the sobbing girl.

"What's wrong with her?" Sora asked, feeling bad that he had even come over here in the first place.

"She's worried sick," Rai stated simply, his faced pained.

Sora cocked his head to the side in confusion and expressed said confusion with his voice. "Huh?"

"Seifer's been missing for two weeks, ya' know," the darker skinned boy said with a solemn look. "Fuu's been real desperate to find him."

Sora racked through his memories. Whenever they had used the Sandlot to practice for the tournament, Seifer and his crew had never been there. They had the entirety of the time for themselves. The manager had come in a few times to watch the training but Seifer, who usually hogged the lot, was never there and his crew was nowhere to be seen.

"Have you seen him at all?" the brunette asked his curiosity peeked. "You checked his house? The normal hangouts?" The boy nodded solemnly.

"We check a few times a day. Fuu's hasn't been taking it real good, ya' know. He's always been there for her. With him gone . . ." he left the rest of sentence hanging in the air. Sora really wished he had finished it. Then Sora wouldn't be so worried for the soft spoken girl.

XXXXXXXXXX

Larxene hated all this waiting. Well, that was half of the problem. She also couldn't kill _any_ of her opponents. Not a single damn one. She had been mad enough when she had heard that she couldn't use her kunai, then that she could destroy anybody. That's a cruel thing to do the poor girl. At least her mom wasn't here. She would go nuts to hear that her daughter hadn't turned out to be a lady of society like her. _More like a stuck up wench who can't do crap_! She thought bitterly. Her mother was all into that hoity-toity crap. At least her dad was a normal one. He was the one who taught her how to use her knives and that's where she got most of her personality from, at least the basics.

She felt a hint of sadness as she thought about them. It had been so long since she had seen her mom or dad. Would they even claim her as theirs? Would they still be remembering all the things she had done? She had screamed in their faces. Told them that her life was hers and her's alone and she didn't want the company. She had never wanted it. Why would she? It was too settled for her. It was for people like her cousin Orlud who was all for the money and the fame that came with the name Nixel. What had she ever done to deserve all this crap? Oh, right . . .

The announcer made his way up to the center of the arena and proclaimed that the matches would begin in a few minutes. _Finally,_ Larxene thought with a hungry smile. Her eyes were like that of a lioness lusting for battle.

Another man came up and began to announce the contestants. "Well everyone, we have a few new welcomes to the finals so we had to open a few more slots making the event a little longer than usual. For one we have the underdog who came in second to the champ, HAYNER!" the crowd roared with approval as one of the favorites came up with a confident but serious look on his face. "Next we have new comer to the system. She flew right under our noses and got right into the finals with her prowess, LARXENE!" The crowd cheered once again, though, not as loud as for Hayner. They were all eager to see what she could do. "Then I must introduce an old favorite for games and the previous champ. The girl's fave, SETZAR!" There was a cry out once again but it mostly came from the female spectators. They _loved _their Setzar and he knew it as he stepped up and tossed back his long silver hair. "And now back with a newcomer, he wowed us with his skill. Now let's give a welcome for Irin!" A _very_ tanned boy stepped forward with a green shirt with a biohazard sign on it and a dark blue jacket. His face was set in a permanent smirk with a mop of black hair, yet his green eyes held a serious nature that Sora felt very uneasy about. "We have another newcomer who surprised us all. Let's give it up for Kain!" Another boy stepped up. Sora felt completely off about him. He held no smirk, no smile; no hint of any positive expression. He held his arms crossed with a mop of red hair that just seemed to sit there. He wore kaki pants and sash over his maroon shirt that held his struggle bat in place. Sora looked into his eyes and he could feel distain, hate, and most prominently, sadness. "And of course, we can't forget the champ! Let's all give a greet welcome to Seifer!"

The crowd roared with approval for the champ of the Struggle matches. The yells even continued when no one stepped up. Eventually the cries began to waive into sounds of confusion and wonder. No Seifer.

Rai stepped up to the plate and walked toward the announcer and whispered into his ear. Larxene and Axel watched as the young man's face went from confusion to upright shock. The man turned to the crowd uncertain on what exactly what to say. "I am sorry ladies and gentlemen, but it seems that the champ is missing, and if he does not arrive by the time of his match, he will be disqualified.

The crowd was taking no pleasure in the fact that their champ was nowhere to be found, but they could do nothing but let the matches commence.

"Now, let us begin!"

XXXXXXXXXX

Fuu ran through the empty streets of the town, her tears still running down her face. _Why?_ She thought as she tripped over a tipped trash can. She got back on her feet, never noticing that her lip had burst since she had fallen on a brick. She didn't feel the pain. It couldn't match the pain in her heart. Why? Hadn't she done everything she was supposed to? She was loyal. She had done everything that he had told her? Why had the only person that she could be, well, herself around, just disappeared? It wasn't damn fair! He was the only one she really ever talked to, and it seemed to her that she had been cast aside like a dry Sea Salt Ice-Cream stick.

She ran through the streets, never noticing where she was; only believing that the more she ran the more the pain would disappear. Why was there no one that could make her feel like she actually meant something? Sure she had her mom, but that meant nothing. Her mother didn't know her like she thought she did. She thought that Fuu was a gentle flower. A delicate person who liked to get dressed up! That was never her. She was normally depressed and shy. She never talked with huge sentences because she felt like no one would really understand her. Except Seifer. He would listen to her. Talk to her. Around him and him alone she could be who she truly was. And she loved that. She loved him.

She continued though the darkness of the alleys. Her pain filled heart forced her to wander. That's really all that she felt like doing. Rai and Vivi had come to her and basically dragged her to the games. They had hoped that at least Seifer wouldn't miss that. But no. Rai just had to say _his_ name. Damn him.

She continued through the alleys. Her pain. She just wanted to get away. She just wanted to be alone. DIDN'T THEY GET THAT!?

If for one second she could get out of her self-pity and such, she would have noticed that there were two yellow eyes staring at her out of the shadows that crept into this dark corner of the town. All she could see was the inside of her hands as she cried. She was curled up on the ground where no one would ever look for her. Just like no one had ever looked for the creature that had survived here, thirsting for hearts. And her heart was just ripe for the taking, wallowing in despair. Perfect.

Fuu continued to cry. Her thoughts were on Seifer and what she felt about him. Never noticing that shadows were moving and crawling. Nor that the air had grown colder.

The Neoshadow crawled its way through the darkness. This was so delicious. All the pain and sorrow. Perfect. It came forward and began to shift from the 2-d form it had just taken now back to its natural form to take the young girl's heart. That's all it needed and that was all it cared for. More hearts.

It's dark, clawed hand grabbed onto her leg, wishing to drag her to it to devour her. For the first time since Rai's words earlier, Fuu noticed what was going on. She felt her leg go cold as ice with the creature latching on to her. She felt not pain in her heart, nor sadness, nor sorrow, but fear. The yellow eyes were looking at her from out of the blackness that made up its being. Her red eyes widened. She had no idea what to do. What was she to do?

"Take that!"

The black thing jumped back from her. She had no idea what had happened or why, though she did see this shiny stuff come over the thing and some of it had hit her. The thing turned around to see a young spiky haired man. He wore blue jeans with a silver chain hanging out that connected up to his back pocket. He wore a white t-shirt with a blue jacket that had a black trident on the side. In his hands were the strangest weapons the neoshadow had ever seen. It looked like a guitar that only had four strings and it was shaped like the symbol that those weird white and grey things wore on their bodies. He had a confident smirk as he held out his hand and the strangest thing began to happen. Water began to form out of the air and into a ball. Only one thought rang through Fuu's mind:

_Impossible._

The man's mouth became a smirk. He reared his hand back and more impossibilities came. The orb of water followed the place of the man's hand. The seventeen year old girl watched as he threw the water ball like a pitcher. The water stayed in the circular form and hit the dark creature. It shuddered away from power of the water that had hit it. The man charged forward and swung his guitar (but really it was a sitar) like a baseball bat and hit the shadowy thing, making it dissipate into black gases.

It was silence.

Fuu said not a word as she looked at her rescuer. Now that she looked at him, she noted that she had never seen him before. She also saw the backpack he had hung on left shoulder. It looked pretty full.

"You alright?" the guy said in a light voice that sounded around her age, maybe a bit older. "That Heartless hurt you? You look like you've been crying." He held out his hand for the grey headed girl to take.

She grasped his hand as she came up. She muttered her thanks to the boy, hoping he would just leave her. She wanted to stay alone. "Fine." She said unevenly, a little apprehensive about him.

He cocked his head to the side, which caused his spiky hair to flip slightly to the side. "A bit of a talker, aren't ya?" he side with a smirk. No matter how she felt about that remark, she couldn't help but flush red from embarrassment. "Just to let you know," the water user smiled, "I'm Demyx!'

Even after all that happened, after the tears, the Heartless, whatever that was, and the water, Fuu couldn't help but smile a little. "Fuu."

XXXXXXXXXX

Seifer felt weird every time they did that. The boy had just followed Sephiroth through the portal to some sort of metallic hallway. Though at first glance, it wasn't Seifer. He was taller, more muscular, darker hair, his face basically the same just more angular, with the scar across it still there.

Along with the changes on the outer shell that he was, he had lost something else. His heart was gone. The darkness had consumed it and manifested it as a Heartless. These two weeks, Sephiroth had schooled him on the realms and the creatures of them. He knew all about the Heartless and their kin, the Nobodies which he had now become. He no longer had any of the emotions of a human. He had been apprehensive about being an empty shell but he had found that he was far stronger than he had been in his pathetic human life. No emotions to drag him down now.

Though he had become his temporary teacher, Seifer was utterly terrified by Sephiroth. The silver haired man intimidated him more than any other living or non that he had ever meet. He was cold, calculating and ever calm. Seifer had tried to use his new weapon against the swordsmen only to be soundly defeated in the blink of an eye. Yes, he feared him.

"Why are we here?" Seifer said to the man ahead.

Sephiroth did not reply, he only nodded forward. Seifer sorely wished that the man would stop being so mysterious and just bluntly give him an answer.

They continued to move through the completely white hallways until they came up to a sliding metal door with the symbol of Organization XIII broadly in black on the door. Seifer looked at his teacher but the man said nothing and continued through the door.

Inside was a long line of empty canisters with numbers above them.

_I, II, III, IV, V, VI . . . .XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII. What is all this?_ Seifer wondered. The room was cold. Deathly cold. For a moment he thought that this was a morgue. Why had Sephiroth taken him to a morgue?

"Welcome, young Nobody," Sephiroth said in an ominous voice. "Welcome to the final lair of the last Human Nobodies." His hands pointed out to the canisters marked XV, XVI, and XVII. "The last canister is yours. Whenever a new Nobody is born, a new cell is made for them in case they need it. These two," he said indicating two canisters. Unlike the rest of them, whose contents were none, these held something. Seifer could clearly see black boots which were partially covered by black cloaks that spread up to the torso. Oh, so conveniently, the ice of the cryogenics tube seemed to thicken up around the face so no matter how close you looked, you could see nothing. "I owe them a favor."

Before Seifer could protest, the dark man pushed him between the two canisters forcing him to touch the icy glass. Seifer didn't know what he had done but he felt the room slowly start to get warmer. He could see steam rising from the two containers.

They were coming free. They were coming back to life!

Number XVI began to shake violently. The canister began to rip from the wall as the being inside was fighting to free itself from its icy prison. Seifer got up off the floor and turned back in fear to Sephiroth. The swordsmen said nothing but pointed back to the shaking container.

Seifer gulped, and if it hadn't been for the shaking vessel, then it would have been very audible. The more and more it shook, the more and more that Seifer wished he had stayed human.

The ice shattered with a violence unheard of in the young man's mind. He closed his eyes but he very distinctly heard a clear male yet raspy voice that said, "Damn, it's about time we got out!"

Seifer opened his eyes and he saw two figures standing side by side. There was a man; he was tall, almost lanky. He had an angular face that was partly colored by constantly shifting rainbow spectrumed hair. The multicolor hair wafted over the man's right eye and Seifer was glad he could only see one. The one he saw was so filled with madness that he felt his heart would burst.

The other man stood tall as well. Just as tall as his companion. But he was much broader shouldered. The traditional black cloak of the Organization was upon both of them but while the first man held his hood down, the other kept his up. All Seifer could see was the bottom of a dark brown and grey short beard.

The lanky, rainbow haired man stepped forward and proclaimed, "Greetings young one! I am Boxcly, The Rainbow Ravager, Sixteenth member of Organization Thirteen! I am the Lord of All That Glitters and Glows!" then he looked straight at Seifer, and his voice changed in an instant from happy and boisterous to cold and soulless, "Now, who the hell are you?"

Then he knew without a doubt, that he had opened the gates of Hell.

**WOOW! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! It's done! The Organization is back, baby! This one was hard to write. I hope you all enjoyed it. It was hard to write Fuu's emotional breakdown. If you all want I can give guys the parings. Just ask and I'll pm you or if your not a member, leave it in my review answer. I won't put it here so that others who still want to be surprised will be able to be surprised. Now, big question of the day! How was the entrance? You know the entrance of XV and XVI. Nope, only one name for you guys just yet. I had planned for this to go a bit longer but if figured that this chapter was long enough so I left it just at the getting out so their names will be revealed next chp. And yes Seifer is a Nobody. The reason why he still has his human name will be in the next chapter.**

**NOW REVIEWS! MELON!**

**CattieGothLoli****-Thanks for the reviews each chapter. Most people only give one after they read everything I got so far. Selphie will appear soon so don't worry. **

**flowergirl220****-of course her attacks are cool, that's one reason I have her. That and the great comedy I can use between her and Axel. Axel wasn't the one who went into Larxene's room. It was Demyx who's drink was spiked with the vodka had who got pushed into Larxene's room. If you want darker, then I hope you enjoyed this. MUHAHAHA!**

**Fiendslayer****-That and he owes me both a five day loan of the sword and 234 munny. But whose counting these days?**

**Now LET'S ENJOY THE SUMMER! **


	6. The Loss of Innocence

Chapter 6 The Loss of Innocence

_Boxcly?' what kind of name is that?_ wondered Seifer, but he said nothing as the crazed man licked his lips.

Seifer felt like his proverbial heart would stop. The two beings before him were looking right at him. At him! The one who had introduced himself as Boxcly(which he still thought was a weird name) was looking at the young Nobody with a look in his eyes that screamed that he wanted blood to be spilt. Seifer had used intimidation tactics in his own fights, but this was a whole new ball game.

The other man stood completely still with his back up and his shoulders straight. It was like he was an unmovable statue. While his companion was breathing hard and twitching, the hooded one never gave an inch.

"Sephiroth!" Boxcly said with surprise evident in his voice. "It good to see you, Sephy!"

Seifer could almost see the swordsmen's eyes move back as though they were rolling. But he disregarded it as a trick of the light.

Boxcly began to stretch and turn and you could hear the audible popping sounds of stiffness being cast out of the body. "Ahh! If he was still alive, I'd gut Vexen for not telling us that you remain conscious the whole blasted time you're in that capsule! I told you we should have brought playing cards!" His face began to switch randomly through emotions . Anger, joy, shyness, fear. And Seifer also noticed that his hands were constantly flexing, as if they were waiting to get around Seifer's neck.

"Silence, Boxcly." Seifer almost had to strain his ears to hear what the hooded man had said. It was low, forceful, and menacing. The man made barely any movement, yet Seifer felt a chill run down his spine.

"And who do we have here, Sephiroth?" the hooded man faced Seifer. Seifer could only watched in disbelief as the metal of the floor began to flow up and onto the man's cloak. Molten metal began to cover him. As it came up to the hem of his cloak, it changed into black. You would never know the difference.

_He is looking at me! He's going to kill me, I know it!_ Seifer felt his nonexistent heart pulse faster with adrenaline. _What else can these freaks do?_ Seifer didn't wish to find out. At least not the way that this Boxcly guy looked like he wanted Seifer to find out.

The rainbow named Boxcly looked over Seifer curiously. He began to circle the young boy with a disgusted look on his face. He must have gone around him at least six times. And every time he faced Seifer, a new emotion was plaster over his face. This was really getting creepy.

"His name is Seifer," said the stoic swordsman. Boxcly cocked his head but made no reply. "He was a youth from Twilight town. Now he is one of you."

Boxcly burst into hideous laughter. "Ooh, a little townie for me to play with, how nice!" Seifer backed away from the skinnier man. Boxcly's grin kept getting wider. "Afraid, are you? Good!"

Boxcly lunged at Seifer, as if to try and seriously strangle him. Seifer backed away but this guy was fast! Too fast. Seifer brought his left arm up to block. Seifer braced himself for the blow, but none came. Boxcly grabbed the arm and a feral grinned made its way to the thin man's face.

But before Seifer could do anything else, his eyes began to hurt! Light! It was everywhere! In every spectrum it came! He couldn't see, but he felt the arm release him. "That'll teach you respect for your elders, brat!" Boxcly's tone dripped with venom and malice. Just waiting to for blood.

"Boxcly," came the voice of the hooded man again, "control yourself."

Surprisingly, Boxcly backed off. He looked at the man strangely then bowed. "Yes mi Lord, but you know how boring I think that is."

The man nodded. "Well," Boxcly said stretching his limbs and popping his fingers, "I believe it's time we find old Xemnas and get back to work."

The first thought going through Seifer's head was this: _Is this just a group of weird names? Sephiroth, Boxcly, now Xemnas? What kinda name is that?_

To his absolute horror, Sephiroth looked at him and said, "As if someone named Seifer has any room to talk." Seifer felt a chill down his spine.

_What are these people?_

It came again. "We are Organization XIII. Speaking of which," Boxcly began to stretch his back making very audible sounds, "like I said before, let's find Xemnas and find some more hearts."

"Xemnas is dead." Came the simple reply from the silver haired swordsmen.

Boxcly stopped where we stood with one foot in air, and to Sephiroth's un-showing surprise he looked genuinely perplexed. "Really?' he said with head tilted. He shrugged and smirked. "I never thought he would ever kick the bucket!" Boxcly held up his hand and light began to form around it, slowly. Seifer watched in amazement as a light green piece of glass formed. But it wasn't any just shard. No, this had a definite shape that scared Seifer.

It was a knife.

Before Seifer could even react, the knife flew into the wall so deep that the only part sticking out was the handle and the cross guard. "Well, Xigbar should be able to tell me then."

"Dead, as well."

Boxcly turned back to face the long haired swordsmen with an incredulous stare. He then formed another knife and threw it below the first. "What about Saix, surely not?"

"Dead," came the even reply from the stoic swords master.

Another knife.

Boxcly began banging his head against the metal walls in frustration. "Oh, come on!" he said angrily, "at least Luxord! He was a survivor!"

"Dead and penniless."

Boxcly turned to regard Sephiroth and his companion. "Do you mean to tell _me_ that we are the last human Nobodies in existence, 'cept him?"

Sephiroth nodded.

Another thing scared Seifer. Boxcly smiled. "Well, well, well," he said eagerly to the cloaked Nobody, "looks like it's time for our plan, eh partner?"

Another nod.

"Well, then first on the agen—Hold on, Sephiroth, what did you say this kid's name was again?"

Seifer finally felt his backbone grow back in place and said, "Seifer."

Boxcly looked at him curiously, "That won't do at all." He turned back to cloaked man and said, "Well it seems our friend hasn't gone through the naming ceremony yet. You know the thing with spinning letters and the big X? You can do that, right?"

The man came forth and Boxcly moved away with a smug grin still plastered on his face. "You feel nothing."

Seifer looked at the man like he was on crack. _What the hell is that suppose to mean? I feel everything. I especially felt that guy's grip on my arm earlier! He is strong!_

"You can feel nothing," came the hooded man again in his cryptic fashion.

_What does that mean?_ Seifer thought again. He looked over to Sephiroth and then to Boxcly. Both looked rather bored.

_You have no emotions and the ones you think you have are just a lie that you, yourself are fooled by._

That wasn't his thoughts! Another voice had made it's way into his head. But how?

"Do you want a purpose?" Seifer looked at the man again. His hooded face was shrouded in darkness yet Seifer could see a shadow of a smile on the visible part of a partly wizened face with a grey and black beard.

Without any thought to what he was doing, Seifer nodded. He didn't know what the man was asking or what his answer could make him expect to be, but this was his only chance to find out what was really going on.

The hooded man's hand came up and slowly waved through the air. Magically, strangely shaped letters appeared in the order that spelled . . .

S E I F E R

That was his name! He knew that name. Of course! But what was going on here?

The man waved his hand again and the letters began to spin around Seifer. He looked at them in both fear and curiosity. What did the hooded man have planned? Seifer couldn't guess at the possibilities. Using one's own name was certainly an inventive way to kill someone. Seifer would have a new purpose if that was the case. He would be the lab rat for new ways of death.

The cloaked one held up his hand again; there was a flash of light! Siefer didn't blink, he tried to but his body wasn't listening. He saw that the letters had stopped but in a new combination and in the middle he saw an X that was much larger than the rest of the letters.

F E I X S E R

"Feixser." The name seemed to so easily roll of 'Seifer's' tongue. Too easy. It seemed familiar yet it wasn't his name. Or was it?

"The new you," the man said again with a finality to his tone. Seifer looked at the man and then he saw the man's eyes! They were some of the most intimidating futures on a person he had ever seen. They were orange! No human being had orange eyes. They looked at Feixser with such intensity that he felt as though he would burn there. Yet they were cold. Merciless as the cold tundra. Complete and total loss of humanity.

"It is finished," the man said coldly; he walked away over to Boxcly and Sephiroth. "Now the plan may begin." He turned to Sephiroth how nodded.

"I will wait," and with that, the silver haired one disappeared.

Boxcly clapped his hands together and rubbed eagerly. "So, where do we start?"

The cloaked one did not speak for a moment. He held his black gloved hand up to his chin and began to think. He didn't stand there long before he spoke again. "With the other's gone, the Castle will have to be purged of whoever has taken up resident of it. I believe that Maleficent would have taken it as she seems to have returned from the Realm of Darkness of her volition. Now . . . who to send?"

The man didn't need to ask this and he knew he didn't. The moment this was asked, Boxcly was already thinking of cruel and very _inventive_ way of ridding his companion of the witch.

Though many of these hopes were dashed when the man spoke again. "Show the boy the ropes while your at it, Boxcly."

Feixser heard and saw Boxcly groan at this. "Why can't you take him? He'll just get in my way."

The cloaked man said not a word but continued to look at the rainbow one. With one more flex of his hands, Boxcly sighed.

Feixser stepped up to where Boxcly was and looked at him. "So, what am I supposed to do?'

With a sneer, Boxcly spoke, "Reach deep within yourself and open a channel of the darkness of the shell you now are. There you will be able to open a Corridor of Darkness."

Feixser closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He felt something, it felt cold and harsh, yet it was also shielding and felt pleasant all the same. He reached into it and his hand began to rise. On the wall, a black spiraling portal began to open. It was small but big enough for him to fit through. The two jumped through as the cloaked man disappeared in his own darkness.

And so ended Seifer, Head of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Admit it, you let him win!"

Larxene rushed through the crowd, putting her black hood over her head to try and hide her red face from the redhead following her. "I did no such thing!" She yelled back at him, though that was really the only way he could hear her over the crowd. "The sun just got in my eyes."

Only moments before, Larxene faced Hayner off in the finals for the Championship. She had beaten Kain in the first match, though she had to admit he was very good and extremely focused. Setzar had lost to Irin but he lost to Hayner, and he and Larxene fought, but 'somehow' she seemed to just trip and allow Hayner to get enough of the little orbs to win.

"Come on!" Axel said and they found themselves in a quieter corner of the Sandlot. "Just say it! You were trying to be nice."

Her response was a good punch to his left arm that almost rendered him disabled.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sora should be have been congratulating Hayner on his championship. He should also have studied more for the Geometry test so he wouldn't have made a 79 instead of making out with his tutor. I'll give you three guesses who the tutor was.

"Sora, you do know that you look great in black."

He smiled. He had to go back and re-thank those three indecisive fairies who had his new clothes. His mother didn't like them, but Kairi sure did. So whenever Kairi was around and mom wasn't, was the perfect time to pull these out of the closet. He had done it once when, yeah, mom was gone but he had forgotten dad was home. He came down the stairs in his adventure suit and the man only said that Sora better not lose this one. He smiled. He had no intention to.

"And you know that you look great in anything," he said trying to be as romantic as he could.

She giggled. "You don't want me to tell you how corny that was." How he loved her!

He rubbed the back of his head, a bit embarrassed. They always did this. Ever since they had come home from their adventures, they spent as much time as they could together. Her adopted mom was a bit nervous about Sora, and his mom was like a mother hen, so protective. They had to be inconspicuous so as not to arouse the enemy.

"You do know that the moment that we start," Kairi said with her playful little smile, "that somebody will come in and ruin the moment."

Sora smiled wickedly (ok, as wicked as he could look), "Then they shall be introduced to my Keyblade."

She rolled her eyes. He could be so childish. But of course that was what made him, well, him. And as she had told him (it seemed so long ago now) she never wanted him to change.

"Sora, stay the same." Oh how he loved this woman. "And," she said in the oh so sweet voice of hers, then she grabbed him by his shirt coller, "if you ever have to go on another of your stupid adventures again, you had better take me along or I will shave your head and sell the hair to that wig shop we saw yesterday!"

Now for most guys, this isn't exactly the greatest threat that could be made from their girlfriend. If you think that , however, you don't know Sora at all. Sora's hair was his pride and joy. He didn't have to do anything to it to keep it in its spiky formation that everyone knew him for. Threatening Sora's hair was like threatening his first born child.

Kairi laughed at the face he was making. A cross between absolute terror and a childlike pout. "I can make it up to you for the last few times," he said quickly, fearing the wrath of the redhead before him.

She smiled, "Oh, you mean like this," she pulled him closer and their tongues began a game of tonsil hockey.

Oh how he loved this woman.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Damn it all! How the hell did we lose her?"

That is the exclamation of one rainbow haired Nobody with the current disposition of a volcano. And the lava flow had just been redirected to another Nobody that unfortunately just stepped out of the Corridor of Darkness.

Boxcly snapped around to face his unwelcome companion, his face livid. A crystal spear zapped into his hand, its tip at Feixser's throat. "You know if you had been a bit more than _deadweight_ we probably would have had her!"

Feixser had the look of sheer terror for the maniac before him. What was he supposed to do? He barely understood any of the new abilities he had gained. They had fought a witch. A WITCH! It wasn't like this was all part of his daily routine. There had been a giant fat cat in the weirdest cloths and he had punched Feixser into a wall. What was he supposed to do?

Boxcly smiled at his victim and backed off twirling the crystalline spear between his fingers. "You're a natural, kid." His face was so amused that the smirk was almost ready to split his face.

Feixser, confused beyond belief, asked, "What do mean?"

Boxcly had begun to walk away and slowly turned on his heel with a face of bewilderment, but the realization slowly began to dawn on him. His expression changed to utter bemusement. He began to laugh hysterically. "You didn't understand what my partner said? Sephiroth never told you, did he?"

"What are you talking about?" Feixser was really getting tired of all these riddles. That damn grin never left Boxcly's face. "They were all speaking gibberish."

Boxcly laughed even harder now. "This is going to be _sweet_! Kid, come here." He motioned for Feixser to come closer. Really, he didn't want to comply. He had seen what the man had done to their newly acquired Castle. He didn't trust this man, in the least sense of the word. Nevertheless, Feixser stepped forward.

Before Feixser could react, Boxcly grabbed his by his hair, a shard formed in his hand with a snarl at Feixser's face with little crystalline fangs, dripping with saliva.

Feixser face showed everything. His face was starch white with his eyes as big as dinner plates. To say he was scared would be an understatement. He was utterly terrified.

But just as instantly, Boxcly backed off with a smirk on his face and pointed Feixser's face. "That right there. You're not scared of me."

In a shaky voice, he replied, "H-hell, yeah, I am."

Boxcly chuckled with a dark grin on his face. "No you're not. And I can prove it. Think back, When was the last time you were truly scared, as a human. I mean _truly_ scared. Was it the darkness?"

Feixser did think back.. He remembered the darkness. It was so cold. He could remember his heart beating so fast. His blood was so cold. He felt everything so clearly.

"Remember that," Boxcly said, "the creeping of your spine, the chill on your skin, the beating of your heart, the coldness in your blood." His grin grew even wider, if that was possible. "What do you feel now?"

Feixser did not reply at first. He looked at the ground. What did he feel? He _thought _he had been scared. He _thought_ he had been angry. He _thought_ he had been happy. But it was all a lie. A lie he had made himself. "Nothing," he said coolly to the ground.

"Nothing!" Boxcly repeated. "That's all you are, kid. You gave your heart. You gave your being." He started to walk away. "You're just a hallowed out shell of what you used to be." He walked a bit more and turned back with a wicked grin. "You're a _Nobody._" Another crystal spear formed and he licked the shaft of it. "Let's get to work. I have a bitch to kill."

Feixser did not cry for himself. He could not, and now he would not.

He had lost his innocence.

**Oh good Lord, THIS IS INSANE AND NOT THE WAY IT! **

**The last Chapter, this one and the next one were all supposed to be ONE CHAPTER! I hope you all liked the intriguing things that have and will happen. MUHAHAHAHAHAHA! YIPEE!**

**Now onto the REVIEWS! MY LIFE FORCE! + PIZZA!**

**CattyGothLoli****-Yes all the pairings are the same and it will be soooooooo much fun to dictate all of these people's love lives. ALL THE AWKWARDNESS! I hope you enjoy the rest!**

**flowergirl220****-As you can see, Sephiroth is a friend, or friend-like-thing to Boxcly and his unknown partner. I can say that you will . . . MEET THE PARENTS! DUN DUN DAH! A Heartless is what happens when the darkness envelops your heart a Heartless is born. And possibly when a person has a strong heart and will, the body and soul left over after the heart is taken out begin to act on their own without the heart. Thus a Nobody is born.**

**uchiwasasuke79****-I welcome the thanks for the other parts but what do you mean you didn't like XVI and Boxcly? I can't really use Sephiroth as a villain because all that sorta stuff has been used already. I had to introduce OCs. Otherwise this would be just a mushy story and that would be awkward for me. **

**Fiendslayer****-What do you mean you can't find it?! Take a left at the McDonald's go straight for at least for a mile and turn left at the Giant plasma Vortex! **

**ONWARD I SAY ONWARD! And a few more reviews won't hurt!**


	7. The Fallen Steel

Chapter 7 The Fallen Steel

Sora smiled at Kairi. They had been making out for the past half hour. Their peace on the couch at the Usual Spot had been undisturbed. He wrapped his arms around her tighter. He was amazed at how beautiful she looked with her eyes closed like that, as he gently stroked her strawberry hair. She looked like was sleeping and the illusion of how delicate she was completely lost on him. She was beautifully fierce and how he loved her.

"I love you," she whispered wearily into his chest. He smiled and squeezed around her waist just a bit tighter. He knew she loved him. But, hey, any guy loved to here it again.

"We should stay this way forever," she breathed again, opening her left eye just a little.

His smile grew into a grin. "We can if you want. I don't plan on leaving you anytime soon."

She giggled. "You had better not." She moved in closer again to continue their make out session from before.

But to Sora's eternal ire, he did not to continue their game of tonsil hockey. The room began to shake lightly, like a small earthquake. They broke apart and ran outside to see what happened. They saw no visible damage and then ran to check the rest of the town.

What they would find would change the fate of the worlds.

XXXXXXXXXX

Axel looked deep into her eyes. If you had told him a year ago that he would be doing this, he would have laughed at your face. There was no possible way this could be happening, yet it was.

He hadn't gotten Larxene to confess about her throwing the match. But their conversation had followed them against the door of a bakery many streets away from the sandlot where they had started. Now they were silent with their soft gasps of breath touching each other's necks. It just occurred to Larxene that Axel was almost a head taller than her. That meant that he was leaning closer to her and she was looking up. She didn't know how they had gotten there. But she wasn't complaining.

Neither was he. He couldn't help but gawk at their situation. He was admiring her little bits of hair that were sticking up like antennae and the sheen of her short blond locks. How he had gone from hunting her like game to this? It boggled the mind.

"You know," she said with her childlike smirk, "you can either continue stand there and get slugged or we can make-out. Is the answer that hard?"

He chuckled. Same gorgeous Larxene. "Not really," he said mimicking her smirk.

Of course, as they were only an inch from each other's lips, they felt the same tremor that Sora and Kairi felt. Only for them, it was much closer and caused them to be sent back. Axel was slammed against the outside wall of the bakery. Larxene almost lost her balance but Axel grabbed her wrist at the last moment to pull her back before she could fall on her butt.

They were close.

Very close.

_Too close!_

Larxene, red faced, pushed herself off from the real redhead. 'Come on stupid; let's go see what going on!"

Axel let his professional manner come out and charged out with his comrade, but inside he couldn't shake the feeling of how he liked having her so close to him.

This was going to complicated.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Riku flipped through the rulebook that Pence had loaned him. Though very simple, the sport of Struggle was a bit intriguing. For Riku, however, it would be too easy. He had beat Organization members and Xehanort's Heartless. Just beating some amateurs over some colored balls seemed like pretty good training.

Mickey, Donald and Goofy were eating Sea-salt ice cream. Though he would never tell them, he missed the excitement, the sword fights. He missed having to survive only by his wits and sword. Now all he had to do was sit in a chair and study for school. He almost –almost – wished that Sora would get them in some new form of trouble and drag him along.

He hated his thoughts right then.

Almost as soon as he had thought of adventure, the ground began to shake. Though he was not as close as Axel or Sora it was more subtle, but he could still fell it. He sighed, and with a scowl, closed the book, and put it in his pocket. "I'm going to kill Sora."

XXXXXXXXXX

Boxcly grabbed his side in pain and fury. Damn, how he hated Maleficent. "Damn! You're a crafty witch!"

She smirked at her opponent's situation. But he seemed to have an inexhaustible stamina. She couldn't keep doing this for too long.

He smiled wickedly at her. He had done that too many times for her comfort. He was clever. She couldn't afford to underestimate him. It had been hard enough coming back the first time. She didn't know if she could do it again.

"You have tricks," he reached into a pocket and brought out a spiked crystal ball. A very sharp ball. This could get sticky. "But so do I!"

He threw the ball at her, Maleficent tried to block with her malicious fire but it seemed to pass through it at her feet. She only had time to register her shock before the ball exploded with a fury of rainbow lights and the spicks launched forth and cut through dark robes! She would have retaliated, if she could see! The bright lights had blinded her. But not made her immune to pain. Boxcly surged forward, crystal spear in hand, at an inhuman speed. He cut through her robes even deeper, bringing forth that dark red blood that so drove Boxcly on. In a blind, literally, rage, she backhanded him, sending him back. She blinked several times as her vision slowly returned. She glared at the cornucopia of colors that was Boxcly. She let her power well up within her. She would have to finish this now, with all her power behind her.

She began to transform.

Boxcly smirked. "You're not the only one who can pull that off!" Crystal began to form around him as he shot up and a huge form began to grow around him.

XXXXXXXX

Axel and Larxene ran through the screaming streets of Twilight Town like unthinking soldiers. They had fallen into their old training to lead them to the source of the anarchy. Axel's face held no emotion. Hers held the sadistic smirk that she was famous for. Lightning gathered around her hands and her kunai appeared in a flash. He did the same only with his fire. With a glance, Axel looked at her and examined her. The graceful way her body flowed with his as they ran. He couldn't get the sensation out of his head. Why was this happening to him? Sure she was hot, but was he really falling for the girl who he had betrayed and left for Sora to destroy? How could this be happening?

He was driven by his thoughts when another huge crash rocked the ground. Only this time, there was a form to go with it. The two former organization members stopped in their tracks as they saw the black draconic form began to rise.

Axel snarled. "That's not fair! Sora got a whole year vacation! I haven't even been back a month!" How could his luck get any worse!

Clink! Clink! Came the distinct sound, almost like glass hitting glass. Clink!

Their eyes bulged to the size of dinner plates. As a testament to their shock, a huge crystalline form began rise with the dragon. Colored light began to shine everywhere with malicious radiance. They couldn't believe what was happening. This couldn't be! But if the giant crystalline pinchers and scorpion tail were anything to go on . . .

They were screwed!

It was huge! The legs were like gigantic pillars reflecting the sun. The pinchers looked like they could slice through anything with relative ease. The stinger was like a giant tower curved to fit the barb at the end.

Again, they were screwed. Got it memorized?

XXXXXXXXX

Riku and the Disney group charged through the streets of Twilight Town. It seemed someone had summoned some Nobodies and Heartless to increase the anarchy of the situation. Who had done it, at the moment, Riku didn't care. All he was worrying about was keeping the Heartless here so they couldn't start devouring again. That wasn't really a problem for two Keyblade users, a wizard, and the captain of the castle guard. They were only low level enemies so they weren't that much of a fuss, but unchecked, they could be a threat.

Riku snarled as he cut down a Dusk. Where were they coming from? It was alright to catch the drops from a leak, but you needed to find the leak. He climbed up to the roof tops to see the source of their newest troubles.

They were back.

Organization XIII.

"Your majesty!' he yelled from the roof. The mouse king gave a bit of his partially occupied attention to the silver haired youth. He followed Riku's pointing hand to see the black cloaked figure standing at the edge of a roof.

Mickey quickly assessed that he didn't know this member. Through his searches, he had come to notice that each unique Nobody held themselves in a certain way and held their cloaks in a certain way. He had never seen any of them hold their hands behind their backs or at least, never on one of the broader shouldered of the Organization. There was a new piece on the board.

"Donald!" the king cried. He hoped his friend could hit the newcomer. But they didn't have time for hope, only action. Donald followed where his liege was directing and unleashed a powerful barrage of lightning attacks. Mickey wasn't going to take any chances. He sent some fire in as well to at least wound the member. Now they needed to utterly finish their once finished job.

However, the attacks fell on deaf ears. When the smoke cleared, the hooded enigma was still there as though nothing had happened. Mickey gritted his teeth, hands held even faster to the handle of his blade. Everyone had a weakness, even he, but he would have to find this man's. That would take time, which many people, at the moment, didn't have.

The Organization member stepped out into thin air, but instead of dropping thirty feet, a line glimmering grey material stretched forward from the base of the roof like a floor. He went forward again only closer to the ground and the process repeated like a stairway, which that was exactly what it was. He was coming towards them.

Goofy sent his shield, Save the King, spinning towards the man in hopes of ending this. But they were dashed as the man caught the shield with horrific ease and sent the shield back spinning even fiercer at Goofy, with metal spikes seemed to have grown on them instantly. thankfully he dodged. Mickey didn't want to be at the end of them.

The man came down to the bottom of the stairs and as he did so, the grey material seemed to melt and the liquid flow into the man's cloak like water. Riku jumped down from the roof he was on to help his friends confront this man. Mickey hoped their valor wouldn't be wasted.

"Ah, your majesty," said the Organization member in a cold emotionless voice that sent chills down Donald's spine, "What a pleasure it is to finally meet you. I have heard so much about you from many mutual acquaintances."

Mickey was in no mood to talk. "What do you want and who are you?" he yelled as fiercely as his squeaky voice would allow.

A scoff could easily be heard from the man. "My designs are of no concern to you. You and your companions just seemed to have been caught up in a bit of a witchhunt, per se."

Mickey could put together some of what the hooded one was saying. The Organization was after Maleficent. That wasn't too bad. He could take that; it would even be good for his friends. However, once they were done with the malicious fairy, who was next? No doubt that this man knew about all the events with the rest of the Organization. And no doubt, revenge was in the equation somewhere. This was why DiZ and himself both wanted the Organization completely destroyed. No one to pull this sort of evil weight. The people of light didn't need this.

"We know who and what you are, Nobody!" Riku yelled at the member with anger. "I'm not some child to be manipulated! I will take you down!"

A sound could be heard after Riku's tirade. It sounded almost like nothing but soon Mickey and the others could understand what it was. The member was chuckling.

"Is that so?" he said with cold laughter still in his voice. "Well then I hope we meet again. But, for now, a parting gift."

The man brought his hands forward and pulled back the hood that concealed his face. The sight froze Mickey's heart with memories. He had seen that face before! Not in the same way he remembered Xemnas' face, but it was still familiar. The man's face was lean and somewhat old. He was bearded around the chin, with blackish brown hair with streaks of grey. His hear went down back into his cloak with more grey. The man's face was covered in scars of battle and many looked very old. He had not a wrinkle on his face but the scars made up for them. His eyes freaked Donald and Goofy out. They were icy blue, almost white with lightning flashing behind them.

"I pray that we will meet again, oh sovereign of Disney castle, and on better terms," the Nobody left in a swirling of a Corridor of Darkness, but in his place stood multiple lesser Nobodies, all of whom were ready to kill.

The war had begun again.

XXXXXXXXX

Sora and Kairi looked out at the giant dragon that began its titanic clash with some sort of creature that they had never seen before. But he recognized the dragon. Maleficent. Couldn't the old bat just leave them alone? They had lives too, for Pete's sake!

"Kairi!" Sora said to his girlfriend whilst summoning the Keyblade. "I'll be right back!"

He would have gone off to defend the town and do all his daring do but a strong arm held him back. He looked to see his redheaded girlfriend summoning her own island like Keyblade, now named Island's Destiny, with a look on her face that would have stopped Xemnas cold. "Have you forgotten already?" she said grasping even tighter on his arm, "I'm coming with you whether you like it or not!"

He smiled. She let go and they all went off to fight the giant dragon. What a perfect day.

However as they ran through the streets to the dragon, another saw them. He had been lost for a while in his own memories of the town, but now he had no time for such petty things. Boxcly had shown him how to summon his weapon. 'You'll need it, to defend yourself,' he had said. But Feixser didn't know whether the Rainbow Ravager had meant against their enemies or the Technicolor one himself. He didn't want to know.

He loved his new weapon. It was much better than those poor Struggle things. His was a real blade. A gunblade. It was cruelly shaped, thin with a curved handle like a revolver. But this was much better. Now he could defeat Axel and take back what was rightfully his: his pride.

Feixser quickly turned, surprised, to see Sora and Kairi in the Town, their weapons in hand. He had been humiliated by Sora too, it occurred to him. One well placed shot would end that annoyance here and now. But he held that reaction back. He saw the strange weapons they held. Though Nobodies act on calculation and emotion like action, he felt an instinctual pull to fear their weapons. Or at least be weary of them; Nobodies could not feel fear.

He stretched forth his hand to try to summon those creatures the boss had let loose all over town to deal with Sora. He reached within himself to find that darkness within the hollowness. Feixser penetrated it and seven Dusks appeared. He smiled at his accomplishments and sent the skinny beings down to fight Sora.

But the spiky haired one saw them a while off. While not the brightest bulb in the factory, he had experience in fighting Nobodies. He would normally charge ahead without thought of his own or his comrade's safety. He knew they could handle themselves. Now he didn't. While he had been training her in the ways of the sword with help from the others, she was still a novice, and novices do what they do best: make stupid mistakes. And that could possibly result in injury or worse. He could not and would not let that happen to her after all he had gone through to see her again.

He pulled her close to him, though she struggled but he whispered something into her ear that calmed her down. He waited a bit more till the levitating Dusk got closer. He breathed out the incantation for his plan.

"_Reflecto!"_

A quick clear dome came around them and the Nobodies were sent flying. But he had no time to celebrate. He quickly charged forth with Kairi by him and they began to hack away through the dazed creatures.

Feixser fumed at his minion's failure. He needed more power to show that he wasn't useless. From the corner of his eye he could see the boss—without his hood!—scowling at Feixser. He waved his own hand and creatures that looked like giant things with large metal hammers or axes appeared and charged for Sora and Kairi. The boss disappeared again, the scowl never leaving his face. Nor the 'anger' leaving Feixser.

XXXXXXXXXXX

The devastation caused by their battle was immense. They cared not. Though they had only fought in one small area town, their own form of projectiles (fire and crystals) had their own list. They cared not. The dragon that was Maleficent swiped and threw great clumps of fire at her opponent. She could not hope to match Boxcly in rages of ammo, though. Even if she destroyed one the giant scorpion's crystal spears, he could still utilize the fragments to make small nicks and cuts. But with such, he had caused great damage over the course of their battle. Along with that, she also had to deal with those huge pinchers, and that barbed tail had already stung her. Fortunate, at least for the dark fairy, he couldn't inject poison into the tail, so it was only another one of his many, many blades.

Boxcly grinned manically. This was so much fun! To hell with that cryogenics chamber. He wasn't going back! Though being waist deep in the crystal scorpion's head wasn't exactly a five-star bed either, but at least here he could do whatever he wanted! Oh, how he loved this job! He brought his left hand which the left pincher mimicked perfectly. He stabbed it forward to jab the dragon back. Maleficent roared in pain. But he wasn't finished. He had years of training and he never let his opponent breath once he had them. The right pincher came in and smashed her face. He wouldn't relent. The tail came down and forced the witch-dragon to the ground, bleeding and groaning in agony. Going beyond possibilities, his grin got even wider as he slowly lowered his pincher to clip her head off and take a new trophy. _It's great to be me!_

But suddenly, his eyes were burning! He couldn't see for the pain and the fire! Fire! His eyes were on fire! He screamed and wailed about holding his eyes calling out for vengeance against Maleficent. The scorpion wailed with him flailing about causing even more damage to the surrounding area.

"My eyes!" he screamed. "DAMN IT ALL!" The damage was not even being caused by his crystals any more. Light was being concentrated all around him. The beams were slicing through things but completely uncoordinated. Thrashing lasers. But Maleficent didn't escape this newest weapon completely. New wounds opened on her already bloodied body.

He moved his hands from the chard surface that was his face. He closed his eyes so as not to let the air irritate them even more. He screamed out, "Where did you go, you witch?" But before he could figure out that she was still at his feet, he stiffened. His eyes opened to show bloodshot things that glowed with shock. Lightning arched all over his body. His head twitched slightly to the left again and again. But with that, he couldn't concentrate on maintaining the scorpion any more. But it didn't crack like a statue would or glass. No, the pieces just fall off each other as they had been held together by his will alone. A shower of shards began to flow over the area. With him falling from that height. Ouch.

Axel and Larxene smiled at their handiwork. They knew who this was as they had worked a little with him, but they still feared Boxcly. They had to make him fade away. Now!

He nodded to Larxene who just as serious did the same. She fired lightning sticks from her kunai into the pile of prism shards. The electricity caught and arched through it. Axel spun his chakrams around and sent them trailing around the pile with fire streaming and melting the outer shards.

But that didn't stop number XVI from busting from the pile. His cloak was burning and electricity continued to ark over his body. He was breathing heavy. The front of his rainbow hair was singed. He was not happy.

Where his prey had been there was only the retreating end of a corridor of darkness that lead who knows where. It closed.

"Damn it! Who in the hell shoots fire and lightning at someone when they are _fighting! _Isn't there any decency in the worlds anymore!?"

"You should talk."

Boxcly froze. He knew that voice. Suddenly the truth of his situation hit him. This was getting weirder. He waved his arms about, not facing Axel or Larxene. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" he turned to face them with a blank expression on his own. "This ain't right! I heard that you two were dead. What are you doing here?'

Axel did his trademark smirk. "Not a clue.'

Boxcly shrugged. "Not that it matters, but welcome back my brothers and sisters!" He yelled with his arms in the air. Then he turned to look at Larxene. "And of course whatever you are."

She didn't respond. She knew him, too well. He was a monster and she would take his incessant rambling just so she could kill him. He would die here.

Axel saw her tense at Boxcly's words. He knew what had happened between the Nymph and the Ravager. All the members did. He wouldn't let it happen again. Too many things had happened between them. Even if they really hadn't been feeling anything back then, they thought they were. Larxene didn't deserve that. No one did. Axel would kill Boxcly.

"Not anymore, bastard!" Larxene screamed at him.

He waved her finger at her like she was a disobedient child. "Now, now, Larxene, just cause you somehow came back from the dead doesn't mean you can go and betray the Organization, now can you. You're like me, no heart," his smile grew wider, "where exactly do you plan to run?"

Axel was getting tired of Boxcly once again. He never could stand the color controller. Now with his emotion switch turned to the on position, he was ready to kill him.

But once again, Boxcly started acting strange. He started sniffing around. "What is that _smell_! It smells like. . . emotions!" He smelled to his left then to his right then took a big sniff towards their direction. His face lit up. "No way! How! How'd you find your hearts again?"

Axel spun his chakram in his hand, the fire lining it again. "Like I said, not a clue. This time get it memorized!"

Boxcly chuckled. "Always the same, but we have a problem here. You have your hearts back and I'm still a Nobody, which means I have a job to do." Axel held his chakrams up ready for the fight. "Let's start with you, Blondie!" quicker than she could see, he shot a swarm of crystals at her. True to her training, she didn't flinch. Her kunai launched her lightning towards the projectiles, destroying them.

He smirked. "Well, well, even with hearts we still have our powers. I would ask you how but I think I know what the answer would be. But can you do this?" He waves a crystal staff that he held and multiple Dusk and Creepers appeared. Axel gritted his teeth. Even now they were after him. Just now he had something worth fighting for. He smirked towards Larxene. He charged forward, his spinning blades flaring. The Dusk didn't stand a chance. He cut through them like they were nothing. With each strike he destroyed one. Without a second thought he sliced up at a Creeper that thought to ambush him. His fire decimated it. Left strike with a line of fire to take a whole line.

Larxene fought with her kunai and extraordinary speed. They never could catch her even with their own speed. She sliced with knives in a scissor motion to slice a Dusk in half. She removed her knives and sliced to her left destroying the other two Dusk. This was the real deal.

Boxcly smiled as she destroyed the last of his summons. They hadn't lost their touch. He would have to take it up a notch. "Very good! Very good! But I don't suppose you remember these boys?" Another wave of his staff summoned what seemed to be smaller versions of the giant crystal scorpion that he had been attached to with the organization symbol on the front. There were only four. That wouldn't be too much trouble except for their special ability.

Axel threw his chakrams at them which hit their mark on each one. But it wasn't over and all three of them knew it. The crystals began to gather again into smaller versions of the Nobodies he had just destroyed.

This day was just getting better and better.

XXXXXXXXX

Riku continued to charge through the streets of the city. Except for them and the denizens of the dark, the streets were empty. The people had fled to other parts of the town. He hoped that all had gotten away. But he seriously doubted that. You couldn't win at everything.

He had seen a while ago that the dragon had disappeared. He knew who it had been the moment he saw it. He hoped she had been destroyed by that scorpion. She deserved it for all the lies she had put into him. Turning him against Sora had even caused her first downfall. He wanted Maleficent gone.

"Riku!" squeaked his majesty. Riku turned to see Axel and Larxene fighting little crystal scorpions with a rainbow haired Organization member circling them like a lion waiting to pounce. Riku didn't know the specifics. He could figure where he would play in the fight. He ran forward to attack the Nobodies, though they were unfamiliar to him. He hit one with Way to Dawn and moved onto another, slicing it in half.

"Riku! Behind you!" yelled Axel over the clammier of battle.

Riku turned to feel the grip of four small pinchers grab his arm and hold fast. He felt the skin slice through. But that wasn't all. He turned to see the Organization member point his staff at Riku. The Staff began to grow! It was like a river coming closer and closer still it was at his throat with a very sharp point, "Oh,' he said mockingly, " I guess you don't know about my Nobodies little trick. The Crysmals don't exactly disappear in the puff of smoke like the others. Each shard grows into a new one. Very handy in big fights. That way they are never out numbered." He would have been skewered then and there but he felt the little pinchers break away from a blond flash and Axel smashed the spear with his chakrams. "I forgot about you," Boxcly sneered.

Axel grinned. "Did you forget about them?" He cocked his thumb over his shoulder where he could see Sora and Kairi charging forward.

Boxcly smiled _Perfect! _"Greetings Keepers of Light and Darkness! I am Boxcly. The Rainbow Ravager. Emperor of the Spectrum, Lord of the Iris. All that you see, bows before me."

Axel rolled his eyes. "At least if your going to be the enemy, you can be professional."

Boxcly smiled. "You don't know me at all."

Sora ran up and slammed a Crysaml away. "Axel, you know this creep?"

He nodded, "I'll tell you later."

Sora agreed and brought his sword forward ready to bare anything this maniac could throw at them.

"Was there a party and I wasn't invited?" said a cold voice that reverberated all around the area. A dark portal next to open to reveal a bearded man with black and grey hair in organization robes.

Boxcly looked at the man in total shock and glee. "My, my, am I starting to rub off on you?" He was answered by the man turning his head glaring at Boxcly. "I'll take that as a no."

Axel and Larxene tore their attention away from Boxcly to the newcomer. Their eyes were the size of dinner plate. The hair on the nape of their necks stood up, though you can't tell with Axel.

The bearded one turned his attention back to the Keybladers. "It seems we're all here. Then let the show begin."

"Hey!' Sora spat angrily at the older man. "Who the hell are you! We beat all the Organization."

The man slightly smiled at Sora. "I know that, dear boy. I know about all that has taken place. Though the existence of Axel and Larxene came as much a surprise to me as to you.'

Boxcly burst out laughing. "That's not all! Take a whiff!" Xonsaj did so and his face contorted into one of intrigue.

"Interesting," he said quietly, "However, this changes nothing. We will move accordingly, but I will introduce myself. First rule of etiquette. I am Xosnaj, the Fallen Steel. I will be watching you Sora Hiakri. You can memorize that." He clapped his hands and the Crysmals disappeared. "We will meet again; I can assure you of that. Another parting gift.' He snapped his fingers.

All around them the ground began to shake and in the multiple different places they could see the fire of explosions.

They were back in the big leagues.

**GOOD LORD! I AM HERE! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL XOSNAJ! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! THA'S RIGHT! No we'l move onto other things, such as how you all enjoyed the last chapter and the fact that if you want to learn how to right fight sceans like I did, read R.A. Salvetore's Legend of Drizzt seris. Tremendous. But other than that . . .**

**REVIEWS! MY LIFE FORCE! **

**CattyGothLoli-Correct she did let Hayner win, but not now! They didn't get the witch sorry, but you will see her later. Just keep on reading an youl find out! **

**Fiendslayer-I wonder if anyone will be able to figure out our names we are the great and awesome ones!**

**flowergirl220-do you think Feixser will be normal again? You tell me. Now tell me what you think of Xosnaj. I will you now that he is the main villain and not Boxcly who you will see more. But never forget! CONSTANT VIGILANCE! **


	8. Dr Marx

Chapter 8 Dr. Marx

Sora was thrown into the air by the explosion under his feet. As he flew, he saw Xosnaj and Boxcly disappear through Corridors of Darkness without another word, though Boxcly did laugh maniacally as he left.

He hit the ground hard with a loud 'thump.' Though, you really couldn't tell as it was drowned out by the explosions, the force of the shrapnel hitting the ground, and the screams of the town's citizens. Sora looked up to see the rigging for the face of the clock tower begin to fracture and the actual clock part fall out and hit the ground with a clattering crash! Blazing fire followed the clock face at it fell at the base of the train station. Sora couldn't tell from where he was if there were people there and if they had gotten injured, but he had other things to worry about.

The explosion had seemed to subside and all that could be heard were the groans of the people and the crackle of flames. Sora pushed himself off the ground and turned his head back to see his group pulling themselves up as well. No one seemed to be seriously hurt, only scuffed up and maybe bruised. Riku looked no worse for wear. His lip had been busted from hitting the bricked road from the blast but other than that he was an image of health. Donald, Goofy, and Mickey were alright though, a good bit of dust had gathered on top of the mouse's head. Kairi was alright, thank goodness. Just a bit of dust. Nothing to worry about.

Except for one teeny tiny thing that maybe ORGANIZATION XIII WERE BACK!

The day just couldn't get any worse!

XXXXXXXX

"Well this is just great!" strained Demyx from behind Goofy's shield. Why did that Keyblade brat have to be here? In Twilight Town? Though if he hadn't missed his guess, Boxcly and Xosnaj had been here too. The mass destruction pointed to them and it had to be them together cause only Xosnaj could keep Boxcly from going on a rampage and killing anyone and everyone! But right about now, he wished that Xosnaj had found him and Fuu than Sora.

After he had found Fuu, she had told him everything that had happened lately. He was surprised when she told him about Axel. Course she didn't know that he was a former Nobody. Demyx figured that if he was human again, Axel must be too. It seemed like Axel had already got in trouble with this girl's friend. Same old Axel. Always mixed in with something.

He was tempted to tell her what he thought had happened to this 'Seifer.' That Heartless had disturbed him. But as she had already been an emotional wreak when he had found her, it wouldn't work. After that they felt the tremor and he hid her them in a shop. Now that all the explosions were over he had taken her out of there to help her find her friends, but instead he was once again at the wrong end of not one, but four, **four** Keyblades! His life sucked!

"Hey, Sora," the Melodious Nocturne spoke with hesitation and true fear in his voice, "I'm not here to beat you up or anything. Honest!"

Sora sneered at Demyx. "Like I'm going to believe that after all that just happened. Two monsters just came in and tore this town apart and you think I'll just let you walk out of here? You're dumber than I remember."

Demyx flinched. He knew exactly why Sora wasn't going to trust him. He just needed some proof. That would be _real_ easy! If only he and Fuu hadn't split up at that last alleyway. This was just great. "Come on Sora!" he pleaded. "I'm not a bad guy! Scouts honor."

But before Sora could respond another voice. "Hey, Sora!" He turned around to see Axel with Fuu who looked relieved to find Demyx in the presence of friends even if they were holding dangerous weapons of light aimed at his trough.

"Demyx!" She ran through the Keyblade wielders and grabbed Demyx by the hair. "Moron!"

"Sorry!" She may not look like it but she had one hell of a grip! He was as able to release himself from her only at the cost of a few hairs. "Look, Sora," he said finally being able to face the brunette again, "I was with her during the whole thing. She can vouch for me."

Sora looked to Fuu who nodded very animatedly which from his experience with her was a rare sight. "Fine, but I'm going to keep an eye on you."

Demyx shrugged. "Fair enough."

Axel looked at Demyx and grabbed him by the forearm and whispered to him. "Just to warn you now, Larxene's here too and she remembers _everything_!"

He paled, "Everything?" the redhead nodded. _This was going to be utter hell._

XXXXXXXXXX

The group stood together at Hayner's house. That side of the town hadn't been affected by the bombs and many of the people were still looking if there had been anymore left that hadn't gone off yet. The clock tower, the sandlot, part of Market Street and a bit of Sunset terrace had been attacked by the two terrorists. Sora had been able to get everyone to calm down long enough for them to come together with a plan.

"Look guys," he said his voice strained as it was after having to yell over everyone else's, "we can't sit around and do nothing, we have to go and check out the other worlds to see if this was a onetime thing or this Xosnaj guy is wanting to do what happened here everywhere."

Axel jumped in. "He won't, Sora. The bombs here were warning shots to you. Not an attack."

"How do you know him so well?" Donald asked.

The pyro looked to his fellows then turned back to Sora and the others. "Shortly before you guys went to Castle Oblivion, Organization XIII got two new members. Xemnas found them and inducted them into the Organization. Boxcly, you got a good bit of his personality today. He is psychotic and will do whatever it takes for the pleasure of a kill."

"But," Kairi said confused, "I thought Nobodies couldn't feel anything?"

"We couldn't." Axel said firmly. "That what made Boxcly so strange. Every enemy he defeated he was revealing in their destruction and always on the lookout for more. Since all Nobodies use an element, Boxcly uses Color. His weapons are those prisms. They are not crystals but glass that is set that can bend light into all the colors of the rainbow. He can also refocus the light back around to make a laser if need be."

"A laser!" Goofy shouted, his dog eyes wide.

Axe nodded gravely. "That's just the tip of it. These two are dangerous enough alone, but pales in comparison of how they are together. Xosnaj is the only one who can get Boxcly to follow orders. Another than him, it would be impossible for someone to make Boxcly do anything. I'm not sure why he follows him, it just that he does."

"What were those things," Riku asked rubbing the bandages on his arm, trying to shake of the phantom pain, "that Boxcly summoned?"

Axe chuckled slight from the question. "Those would be Nobodies under his command. The Crysmals are unique to say the least. Unless you completely obliterate them, they would continue to grow and spread out. After the fight they will revert back to their original position and return to whence they came. But they are a true force to be reckoned with. Xosnaj can summon Smiths, as in blacksmiths. They are like the Berserkers that Saix used. Though these are stronger and are much faster. They have an axe blade on the other side of that hammer so it would be good to keep you distance."

Sora mulled over Axel's words. This was just the thing they needed. As if teenage romance weren't bad enough, now they had to deal with guy who had total control of a maniac. Just when things could have started to become simple . . . MORE CRAP!

Then Sora realized what Xosnaj has said. He knew! He knew who Sora was, where he came from, where his family was, where his friends were! And if the bombs were just warning shots, then what would he do once he was focused and ready for a war. What would happen to his mom, dad, Riku . . . Kairi? Would Xosnaj find them? Would he kill them? No. Sora wouldn't let him. He had beaten them once; he could do it again!

"Guys," he said determined, "we need to spilt up."€

XXXXXXXXX

Leon looked at the letter Sora had sent ahead of the group that was to arrive later that day. The Organization was back and three of its former members were a part of the contingent sent to Radiant Garden. And here Yuffie had been complaining about it getting boring.

The swordsmen paced to Ansem's old office. They had finally been able to clean it up and make it look presentable. Many of the old heart research had been packed away and placed in a storage area. He had placed a few books in there himself but the walls that had once held pictures concerning a person's heart now were digital layouts of the city and maps of the worlds. He would constantly look at them and check to make sure there was not too much Heartless or Nobody activity. It had been hard for Cid to program the maps to the Nobodies as they truly didn't exist, but with time he had been able to lock onto the frequency of Corridors of Darkness being opened. He could never be worried about the World that Never Was. Since it was so close to the Realm of Darkness and the Realm of Nothingness, there was huge activity there. He had gotten use to the little red light under the name flashing. But when Twilight Town started to go off, it was a cause for concern.

He called in Cid to see if there were any messages coming in from the town. Nothing had come in until a letter came up off the digital screen. Sora had said that two new Organization members had come in and trashed the area with Nobodies and explosives. What's more, it seemed that the members on their side were afraid of these guys. Could his day get any better?

The door burst open to show a black clad, energetic ninja come in with that annoying little smile on her face. "Hey, Squall! The freak show has arrived!"

Him and his big mouth.

The scared man put away the letter and followed Yuffie down halls of the castle. After three years, they had finally finished the repairs on it and it looked like the castle it had once been before the Heartless. All the marble had been replaced and all the systems that had kept the complex operating were at a hundred percent. The heating and air conditioning were perfect and nothing was malfunctioning except maybe for the lights in the lower parts of the basement.

They made it to the castle postern where they could see three mostly normal looking people. There was a redhead leaning on the railing looking out at the morning sun. He was wearing black pants with a chain sticking out, a black tee with flames at the bottom. Standing with him was a blond with two streaks of her hair standing up like insect antennae. Her dress was similar to the guy next to her only her shirt had lightning on it instead of fire.

The last guy was the flashiest of them all. White pants, light blue shirt, with a long bright blue jacket and a sitar strapped to his back. His hair was light brown and spiky on top going up. He was leaning against the stone wall with earplugs in his ears head banging to something.

"Hey!" Leon yelled to get the newcomers attention. "You from Sora?"

The redhead and blond turned around to face him with looks of annoyance. "You had better be Leon, or you're going to be teriyaki. We aren't 'from' anybody. No orders, we might take suggestions though."

Leon felt the incredible urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, but he didn't. His experience with the new city council had given him much experience in dealing with stubborn and/or stupid people. Leon just looked at them passively and waved to them to follow him into the castle.

This was going to be long day.

XXXXXX

Sora couldn't breathe. His lungs were collapsing. The oxygen that kept his existence continuing was not coming in. He felt his skin turn blue. The world was slowly turning dark. Sora was losing his grip on life.

"Dear, please, your crushing our son."

Oh, how he would have to thank his father later.

Mrs. Hikari released the young Keyblade Master from her titanic grip and continued on her tirade on the importance of keeping away from dangerous men who could turn Sora into roast chicken. She seemed to forget that he had fought these sorts of people for two years of his life. Thankfully his dad wasn't joining with mom on the principle of safety of a home life as an accountant. Yeah right!

"Mom!" he yelled to get her attention. "I'm alright! I'm not injured! There is nothing wrong with me!"

His mother gave him "the look". You know that look you get when you tell the truth to your parents but they think that you're a lying just so you can go off and get into more trouble. That look. "Sora, you are bruised and those bandages on your leg tell me a different story. That you are being reckless and getting in things that don't involve you!"

Sora's father finally roused from the armchair he had been sitting in and put his hand on his wife's shoulder. He was a tall man who looked a lot like Sora. Brown hair, fair complexion but his eyes were green where Sora's eyes were blue. But those greens had a weird light behind them always that seemed somewhat intimidating. "Matsuri, he'll be alright. Why those are only small bumps and bruises from what I see. Both he and I have both had a lot worse and you know it."

The woman looked at her husband sadly. "That had been your job to do stupid things. He shouldn't be doing that. I know what I am doing, Ikari. This whole adventuring mess needs to be nipped in the bud. It's not like this Xoslig or whatever is name is will come here. It's not like he knows us."

At the very bad mispronunciation of Xosnaj's name, those gleaming green eyes seemed to widen. The man released his hand from his wife's shoulder and slumped back in his chair. Ikari put his hands together and brought h chin to rest on them in deep thought. ". . . Xosnaj . . ."

_What's with dad? Ever since you told him about Xosnaj, he's been acting weird. Course he is the one who takes all the weird stuff in stride so he does kind of deserve some weird time._ spoke Roxas from inside Sora.

Now Sora could have reacted to that sentence in a number of veritable ways. First, nothing. He could have done nothing. Smiled, smirked, or anything, but no, he had to laugh.

For most people this would not be a problem. Of course most people don't have to find denizens of Darkness and Nothingness on a daily biases nor do they travel with a duck and a dog just as often. And most people don't have a mother who doesn't understand the fact there is such a thing as smothering and over protectiveness.

"Sora!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "I'm beginning to think that your behavior since you came back has been just too unusual. I saw you talking to yourself out loud numerous times. Did you hit your head while you were out there? No!' she said before he could answer such a stupid and pointless question. "Don't answer that! I'm going to take you to that new doctor that opened up here just before you got back. Dr. Vladimir Marx."

Before Sora knew what was happening he had been shuffled off to go with his mother to see this Dr. Marx. He had never heard of the guy. His mother said that he had arrived only a few days ago. His new little 'clinic' had been set up in the shopping area near the school that now, unfortunately, Sora attended. That was just great. A shrink next to a school. What will they think of next?

The two Hikaris made good time as they walked though the hustle and bustle of the shopping district. Sora could only wonder how these people would react if they had heard the news. Twilight Town attacked! Organization XIII back in business. Yeah, like they would believe him, the runaway with the weird key.

Sora looked at the clinic in somewhat fear. It was a one story building that looked more like a house than a doctor's office. There was a picture of the good doctor in the window. He was a middle aged, somewhat wrinkled, brown hair flecked with grey and beardless, though the picture suggested that he had shaved a good bit off recently. He was smiling, though it looked somewhat strained, like it was hard for him to do.

"Well," she said, pointing to the building, "don't stand there. Go in!"

He entered into the house and swore that the seasons had gone from summer to winter. The floor was hard metal with those flimsy plastic chairs that were supported by arching metal rods. Whoever was running the thermostat was insane because there was no humanly reason to have a building this cold. He could have sworn that he saw ice on the metal floor. Sora sat down in the chair and expected to find ice in the seat of the chair, but it felt surprisingly lukewarm. Mother went up to a desk they had sent up to the side of the room where a young man a few years older than Sora sat with a paperback book in his hands reading.

"Hikari, Sora: two o'clock," she said simply. The boy didn't even look up from his book, but handed her a slip of paper and continued to read the book. Though Sora could faintly make out the top of a scar running down the boy's face. "Come on, Sora." He got up from his chair as he went into the 'dragon's lair.'

She opened a door on the left side of the room and stepped into a hallway. Their seemed to be multiple rooms but they were heading to the room at the end of the hall. He knew this cause that was the one with **DR. MARX, PSYCHIATRIST**stamped on it. He had expected another picture, but there were surprises everywhere. They stopped at the door and mom backed away. "Aren't you going in?" he said.

She shook her head. "No, I think it would be better for you if I didn't go in." Yeah a whole lot better. It's much better nowadays to tell the things you can't tell your mother to total strangers!

Sora sighed and turned the doorknob. Inside he saw a darkened, somewhat maroon walled room. Of course in front of him was the famous couch that they made you sit on, and in a small, black spinning chair sat the doctor.

Just as the picture had shown him, Marx was tall and seemed pretty well built, especially for someone who sat in a chair and listened to people's problems. His brown and grey hair was swept back and flowed down his neck but stopped at his collar. A bit of five o'clock shadow was starting to form on his chin, but he looked just as the picture had shown him with an open black suit with a white buttoned up shirt and black dress pants.

"Ah, Sora," he said in a deep voice that fitted for a man his size, "It's nice to meet you. Take a seat; you don't have to lie down if you don't want to."

Sora looked at the doctor strangely but complied and sat down. "I'm not crazy."

Marx snickered. "Never have said that. No one is crazy. Just different. Such as you."

Sora darkened. "That's just another way to say I'm crazy." He rose to his feet. "Just unlock the door and let me go." He grabbed the handle of the door and found it . . . unlocked.

"Go as you like but your mother will send you right back in here as I know she is right out that door." The doctor looked at Sora gently. "You might as well sit down and at least pretend that you have something wrong with you. Such as a certain blond that talks in your head."

Silence flooded into the room and Sora didn't know at that point if his voice would return.

**HE KNOWS! GASP! BLASPHEMY! I NEED CAFFEINE! ALL! GIVE IT ALL TO ME! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'M BOARD. **

**But we have no time for the triviality that is . . . politics. Never mind. But who is this doctor? Where does he come from and is he important? Will I ever get back to the point?**

**REVIEWS!**

**Fiendslayer****- I need my eyebrows but Zabuza doesn't. Now I have five unique and very detailed orders for you. Go get me Dr. Pepper. Go get me Dr. Pepper. Go get me Dr. Pepper. Go get me Dr. Pepper. Go get me a Taco.**

**0o0-The-Melodious-Nocturne-0o0****-there is your diet of hdyrokenetics for the months so you may be happy and content for all time or five minutes. Either or. **

**flowergirl220****-You have no psychic powers, those are copyrighted by the Wonderful World of Disney. But worry not. There will be a great minimum of drrors in this chapter. Three million a sentence! Isn't it Grand!**

**Well, I hope you all have had a wicked summer and hope the next one is even better. May the Caffeine be with you!**


	9. Nixels and Green Tea

Chapter 9 The Nixels and Green Tea

Sora felt his heart pounding as he continued to stare at the psychiatrist. Dr. Marx had a gentle smile on his face as though he had just offered Sora some of the tea he was pouring for himself. The doctor must not have relished what kind of bomb he had just dropped on Sora.

"Is there something wrong, Sora?" The doctor said as the gentle smile became a smirk.

Sora just dropped back into the arm chair, that same shocked expression never leaving him. "How?" he said, barely above a whisper. The good doctor raised an eyebrow at the question. "How did you know?"

Marx just laughed heartily. "I have been around the worlds more times than you could possibly imagine. I have heard and I have seen things that could break many. Yet I have survived. There are few events in the worlds that escape my ears. Such as a keyblade wielding boy adventuring around the worlds with the intent of wiping out both the Great Darkness and the Nothings-But-Are. You goal has almost been fulfilled except from the fact that you now have two new men out there."

Sora's eyes opened at the mention of them. "Xosnaj and Boxcly!"

Marx nodded. "They will not be like the rest of the foes you have faced. They will not charge at you with armies, though it may come to that. You must exercise your brain in conjunction with your muscles. Otherwise . . ." He left the sentence hanging and brought his finger across his neck.

Sora brought his hands up to his face in a fist, pondering the doctor's words. But then a thought struck him. "How do you know them?"

Marx's face went dark. He took a quick sip of his tea and said, "They are acquaintances of mine. Though I must say they were are not my friends in any sense of the word. I won't go into the details but I warn you know, be wary of all. With Boxcly's abilities he could be anyone, even your own family. Constant Vigilance!"

Sora nodded and was about to get up when he heard something. _Crunch! Crunch! _He could have sworn he heard it from somewhere in the room. The doctor didn't' seemed to be fazed by any strange sounds but just sat there sipping his tea. "Doctor?" Sora began, getting Marx's attention.

"Yes, my boy?"

"That crunching?"

Marx's eyebrows rose. "Crunching?"

Sora looked around the room again. And then walked around it looking for the source of the strange sound. "Can't you hear it?"

He looked at Sora curiously. He rose to his feet and, thoroughly confused, he said, "I'm sorry, Sora, but I have not heard anything other than you own voice." Marx's leg hit the table and knocked over one of the glass teacups he had been drinking from. "My mistake." He leaned over, causing the chair to rise up with him. Marx picked up the fragile glass cup and leaned back into his chair. When he did so, Sora could have sworn that he had heard a hiss coming from somewhere.

Course, the doctor had just shown a bit of faith in him. So he didn't want any more trouble, not that he needed Marx to think he was any crazier than he already did. Sora turned back to the door, but Marx called him back.

"Just to say that I actually did my job, I'm going to give you a prescription." Marx picked up a fountain pen and a small notepad. He wrote something down, ripped the page out of the pad and handed it to Sora.

The hand was legible, if a bit slanted.

_A bit confused, nothing a bit of green tea twice a day shouldn't cure._

_Dr. Vladimir Marx, PhD. _

Sora could almost blanch at the good doctor's prescription. Green tea! He hated green tea. Course, he wasn't about to tell Marx that. Sora saw that was all that Marx seemed to drink. Now he would have to drink something that would turn his insides out. Eww.

"Thanks," Sora said, not very enthusiastic. Marx gave a wave of his hand and somehow, the door opened. Sora wasted no time in getting out the door and slamming it behind him. Course; if he had stayed only a few seconds longer or had come back he would have seen Marx spitting that horrid green tea out of his mouth into a poor potted plant.

XXXXXXXXX

As of this moment, Axel hated the color red.

Red! It was everywhere and it was growing! Leon had decided, after they had given them jobs all over the place, to fix up the castle while he alerted everyone of the situation. Course, he never asked Axel and the others for their help. It was really a big thing that Xosnaj used to be his _coworker!_

But, now Axel, Larxene, and Demyx were painting a hallway in the castle. Thankfully all the repair work on the floors and walls had already been done so all he had to do was paint. Easy job, right? WRONG! It seemed that the paint that Leon had given them was possessed! Oh, yeah.

Heath, as they had begun to call it, would fall onto your clothing and then BAM! It would _grow and spread!_ Axel had no explanation for it. Course ever since he ran away from home, he didn't have very many explanations anymore.

Larxene didn't seem to be enjoying the experience much either. She had got this stripped black and yellow shirt that she had liked until Heath had gotten all over it, so now her new favorite shirt was covered in red growing paint. Oh, what a wonderful day!

Demyx seemed to be enjoying the whole thing because out of all of them, he was the only one with a suitable change of clothing and an mp3 player. So that meant they had to be serenaded by him with no music to go along with his lyrics. The guy can sing, it was just annoying without music.

Oh, what a beautiful day!

"Hey Axel," Larxene said, putting down the paint roller and trying to scrub off as much of Heath as she could "I'm going to ask that Tifa girl if she has an extra shirt. I can take this crap off."

Axel snorted. "You change now, you'll ruin her shirt. You really want that on your conscious?"

No reply came. Axel didn't turn to see if she had already left or she was actually thinking about that. Nevertheless, Axel continued with his work.

With every roll of the brush, Axel wondered where the feisty blond had went; She had been gone for a long time. Axel knew how long she had been gone cause Demyx had gone through about twenty different songs. All of them added up to an hour. It didn't take that long to find a woman and get a shirt. It would only take about ten to twenty, at most. He was really started to get worried. What if Boxcly had come back to finish the job? What if Xosnaj had started another attack? What if Larxene had fallen of the edge of the castle postern? What if the Heartless were back? The Nobodies? What if Saïx or Marluxia had come back to seek revenge?

NO! He would have sensed something, right? Boxcly couldn't possible know where they were, and Xosnaj had always kept him on a tight leash. And to be honest, Axel was sure he would have heard the sound of Xosnaj's war if he attacked now. Axel shouldn't fool himself in thinking that she could be clumsy enough to fall of the castle. The Heartless could be dealt with and so could the Nobodies. The likelihood of any more Organization members coming back were slim to none.

_Calm down, Axel. It's Larxene! She'll be fine. Why should you be worried? It's just a shirt!_

That stopped the pyro. Why did he worry? She was his friend, maybe. But that wasn't enough to worry about her when he knew she would be alright. He knew she would be alright, but that didn't do anything to calm his fears.

Demyx didn't notice any of his old friends worries. He was locked up in the beautiful world of music. Since he was working on the opposite wall, He never saw Axel's face. All he heard were the loud burst of guitar, keyboard, bass, and drums that resounded through his ears.

Axel continued his work with a frown. He had been worrying so much, he had never noticed that he was almost done with the wall. The first thing he heard was footsteps. Footsteps!

Axle turned around to see the approaching figures. He hoped that it would be her, alive, unharmed, and unaccompanied by denizens of darkness.

But that wasn't what he got. There was a blond woman. A much older blond woman, escorted by an equally blond man, who, Axel had to say, was just as big as Xosnaj and Lexeaus. The woman was built much like Larxene; small, flexible, thin shoulders, and that confident look on her. The man was just as intimidating as Xosnaj and Xemnas combined and just as broad shouldered! His face had a blond beard with steely blue eyes that were set on the two boys like he meant death to all. He had a scar across his chin and both of them were wearing fine clothing that just screamed wealth. Axel didn't miss the great sword at the large man's side. His scowl just seemed to worsen seeing the two young and lanky men.

"Have either of you seen my daughter?" the man said in a deep voice that just screamed death if the question was not answered.

Axel's only response was getting as much saliva he could muster to allow him to swallow.

The man growled at the redhead's silence. Though before he could do any harm to poor Axe, the woman next to him put her hand on his arm. "Now dear," she said with a somewhat familiar voice, "We can't go around scaring the locals."

The man seemed to simmer, but he said nothing. Axel took a closer look at his suit and he saw a symbol. It was shield with pictures of an oil rig, a gold bar and a pearl all set up triangularly.

The woman took her hand off her companions arm and bowed somewhat to the pair. "Accept our apologies for our rudeness. My compatriot is Oni Nixel and I am Tenshi Nixel. We are looking for our daughter, Eleran."

If they wanted a reaction out of the redhead, they got it. Axel felt his feet wobble out under him and his knees turn to jelly. He lost consciousness as his face went downwards towards a tray of Heath on the floor.

These were Larxene's parents!

XXXXXXXX

Riku paced back and forth across the docks on the old playground island. He had just heard from Kairi that Mrs. Hikari had taken to some new psychiatrist. That's just great! That's all they need when there's more psychopaths wandering around the worlds! Who knows what those madmen are doing right this moment? They could be terrorizing Wonderland; burning the Deep Jungle; for all he knew they were already on Destiny Islands! He could be in that nut, Boxcly's, sights right now!

That's a great thought.

Riku sighed. He really needed to get his mind off all this crap. There was Sora to talk to, but Sora would probably have bad news with him so that was out. Kairi was straightening things out with her parents. At least, her foster parents. No one to talk to. No Heartless to fight. _Fight!_ That's it! If he couldn't do anything else, he might as well ask somebody for a spar. Tidus? Too slow and didn't take them seriously enough. Wakka? Definitely not! That ball could hurt but it was a lame projectile.

Selphie? Maybe, provided she wouldn't be all bubbly. She could be good, though it probably would be the shortest of all the fights. Maybe all three at once? Nah.

He checked all the places she normally frequented: the tree with the paopu fruit, the waterfall, the pier, and the balcony on the south end of the island. That was unusual for her. He knew she was a 'bit' of a romantic so he tried to think of any more romantic places on the island. Kairi had said earlier that Selphie came here a lot since they had returned. Riku neither knew nor wanted to find out why she had been doing this. He only needed a sparring partner.

On his way back from the balcony, Riku heard something coming from the little tree house that was built. He could hear—what was that? It was like someone whimpering. He took a step forward and could see someone in a blue sundress with blue highlights and some patters of dirt here and there. The person was sitting in a fetal position and though he couldn't see the face, it didn't take long for Riku to recognize the hair. Twisted at the sides and back. Selphie was in there crying!

"Selphie?" he called to her, whispering, partly hoping she would not answer.

The crying stopped. She turned around, startled by his presence. "Riku?" Selphie turned around, tear marks that had ruined her tan makeup and red eyes that ruined even more her appearance. "What are you doing here?"

"I was—" he caught himself. What sort of jerk would he be if he told her he was looking for a spar? "Just walking around."

Another whimper of tears fell down her face. She turned back around to face something. Riku wondered what he should do. Really, it wasn't any of his business. If she wanted to cry her little heart out, go ahead. It wasn't like he cared . . . right?

Selphie's tears could still be heard, coming down hard as ever.

Riku sighed at his own sappiness. "Hey Selphie,' he said stepping closer and bending down next to her, "what's wrong?"

She turned back to him, sniffing her nose. "The worst day of my life." Her sentence lost comprehensiveness after that as she grabbed his shirt and began to cry into it. Riku was startled by Selphie grabbing him like that. Though it wasn't unwelcome. 'I offered Tidus a paopu fruit. He turned me down."

Riku wrapped his arms around her, really unsure of what to do. Rejecting a paopu fruit was not a good sign. The fruit was supposedly able to bind people for all time. It was a true symbol of friendship and love. Asking for someone to share one with you was serious. The rejecting of such was not easy for the giver to take. Especially for someone like Selphie.

Riku looked down at where she had been crying over. There was a paopu fruit. Or at least the remains of one. It seemed that someone had taken the sole of their foot to it. If Tidus had done that, Riku would . . .! What was he thinking? Why should he care?

"Selphie?"

Her bloodshot eyes looked up him curiously, "Yes?"

Riku had no idea what sort of mess he was about to get himself locked up into.

XXXXXXXXXX

Vladimir Marx was brushing his teeth.

Or really his entire mouth!

Why, you ask? Because he couldn't stand the taste of green tea. Why did this stupid disguise have to come with that stuff? Damn that man for telling him that psychiatrists drink so much of this perverse stuff!

Said acquaintance was standing behind the poor doctor, causally sipping a wine glass half full of the vile green liquid, much to Marx's chagrin.

"How can you stand that stuff?" Marx said through the water in his mouth.

"It's good," the man said simply, "and it's very healthy for you."

Marx glared at him. "Healthy? It'll send me to an early grave."

The man set down the glass. "Well, all in all, did we get what we were looking for?"

Vladimir smirked. "None! Other than the knowledge that you were completely right," he sneered. "The boy is a complete imbecile!"

His compatriot shrugged. "Well, what did you expect? I read that boy the minute I saw him."

Marx threw the toothbrush into the garbage. He turned his neck, popping the bones. "I was hoping him to be something . . ."

"More."

Marx nodded.

"To quote a cliché, of course."

The good doctor rubbed his hands together. "Well, now that that's settled, I want us to see an old friend," he said, almost smiling.

The man looked at him curiously, "Oh really? I didn't know we had anymore of those." He brought his finger up pondering. "You know, ones we haven't killed.

Marx chuckled darkly. "Well, one slipped through the net."

The man laughed lightly. "I assume we are going to correct said slip and clean the slate." Marx's compatriot picked the glass up and refilled it for the tenth time, Dr. Marx noted in disgust.

"You know him very well."

The man chocked his head. "Oh? Is it someone from our younger days?"

Marx chuckled again. "You should remember well; he was you sparring partner, after all."

This seemed to generally shock the drinking man. "You don't mean . . ."

Marx laughed fully.

The man set down the glass and grinned. "Why it's been ages? I wonder how the old man is doing."

Marx smirked. "I should imagine, fairly well, he does have a son."

The man looked pleasantly surprised. "Oh, where is the young child?"

Marx shrugged slightly and leaned his head at the door.

The man was elated. "You don't mean. . ?"

Marx smiled darkly, "Yes, he is the father."

Laughter filled Marx's ears."How the twisting strands of fate twirl us all in unison. "It's," he paused, "very comedic actually. Don't you agree?"

Marx raised his hand. "Time to fix that mistake." A concentrated form of darkness appeared. It grew and formed an oval door.

Marx put his foot forward, and said, annoyed, "Are you coming?"

The man picked up the glass, took one last sip, crushed it in his hand, and followed his companion off into the darkness. Though while he sprinted to catch up with his companion, Boxcly, the rainbow ravager, called ahead to the darkness, "And will you take that infernal wig off?"

**I'M EVIL! If you haven't figured it out yet, ask your local library. But now, we move along, and find that Axel, Sora, and a certain someone who you shall see next time! EVIL!**

**But anyway, I no I say it every time, but I am sorry for the wait and plan to for faster updates, but . . . ah life.**

**Feindslayer****-of course you stuff they don't! You help write all this crap! And here take this needle, deflate your head. You have no admirers!**

**Flowergirl220****-MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You know nothing of Marx. That's, of course, if you haven't figured it out now. Sora's mother just thinks he's got a separate personality or that he's completely bonkers. But, ye shall see what's wrong with Ikari (Sora's daddy) in the next chapter. **

**Turner Child****- I did a bit of the starting of the RikuSelphie Relationship but as you see now, or if you figured it out, no Marluxia.**

**Anonymous****-Ah, the women. Such lovely things that can rip us to shreds with a thought and then make out. Anybody other than me confused? Though, I didn't have much Sora action here. It was more on the sub-plots, which will all intertwine. **


	10. See you In Hell

Chapter 10 See you in Hell

Ikari Hikari was afraid.

He hadn't felt fear, real fear for his person in a long time. Maybe when he was a teenager, he couldn't remember exactly when, but he was definitely feeling it now.

Sora and Yutari had left a while ago to go to this Dr Marx fellow. Just saying the name gave him a bad taste in his mouth. He had never even met the man, but Ikari hadn't gotten this far from not following his gut. He wouldn't be alive to say that if he hadn't.

Of course, that wasn't the worst thing he could have thought about. This Xosnaj that Sora had mentioned. That name . . . why did it feel so familiar? Ikari smashed his hand down on his desk. This was so damn infuriating!

Xosnaj's partner had definitely brought back memories. The savagery, the bloodlust, the complete and utter insanity. Ikari only knew of one person in all the worlds who was like that. He knew him personally, but hadn't seen since their insurrection. But that would be impossible. They had died years ago in the Wilds. There would be no way even they could survive to this day.

Ikari, trying to calm himself, moved into the kitchen and poured himself some coffee. Yutari kept telling him to get decaf, but if he drank that, he would never wake up and get to work. Ergo, no food for tummy.

He took a quick sip and turned around to see the most horrific sight he had ever seen in his life. Rainbow hair, rainbow eyes and an almost wolf-like smile.

"Hello, pencil-neck."

Ikari couldn't breathe. There had only been one place, one time, when anyone had called him by that name. The Shinra Electric Power Company. His long far off home. The super company that had supplied power to the entire planet, on another world, and had control of every aspect of life. The ruthless tactics that they had implanted, into him, they had made him a perfect tool for their use. A blade at the back of their enemies throat. He had remembered the one technique that had made him famous among SOLDIER. The mission where he had lost of his weapons and murdered a man with nothing but a pencil.

Not too long after that, his sparring partner began to coin the phrase 'pencil-neck.' The man who stood before him in his kitchen as if on a Sunday tea stroll. That same Shinra military agent who worked in the Laser Optics Division . . .Colby!

Now Ikari was shocked to see his old sparring partner to be sure, but he hadn't gone through a lifetime of rigorous military training for nothing. In a flash, he pulled a pen from his pocket. Flowing like water, he jabbed forward with the speed of a jungle cat.

But 'Colby' had gone through the same training, and he had harnessed that training with years of rational gone askew. Colby brought his hand up even faster than his partner and a crystal dart shot forth flying through Ikari's grasp. Thus causing the pen to explode in a shower of black and red.

"I wouldn't try it, old friend," he said grinning, "you know I was always faster than you with a blade." He scanned the bleeding man with a quick glance. He shrugged almost casually and smiled slightly. "Not to mention, that my friend is standing right behind you ready to ram a sword through you, if you so much as blink the wrong way."

Ikari turned on his heel to see a clean shaven man with a glistening silver blade held at his back only a foot from him. Sterling blue eyes pierced through the darkness showing the hate and focus of his newest visitor.

"It's been a long time, old friend," the man said the without removing the sword from sight.

Ikari glared at his newest guest. "Not long enough, Jason."

'Jason' growled at that name.

'Colby' waved his finger. "Uh, uh, uh," he uttered in a mock rebuking tone as if he was a parent disciplining a small child, "We go by more explanatory names that represent our new 'nature," he said lightly, placing quote makings around his words, "you might call it."

'Jason' pushed the Blade further towards Ikari. "The names are Boxcly and Xosnaj. Remember them, they may be the last you ever hear."

Boxcly made a fake yawn and stretched. "Now that annoying formalities are over, can we can get on to the serious business that we came here for-namely, to butcher you." A pleasant smile spread across the Ravagers face as though he was simply discussing carpet designs. After which, an unexpected glance from Boxcly to Xosnaj as if asking permission.

A simple shake of the head 'no', caused Boxcly to first tilt his head in confusion that quickly grew into annoyed anger. "Why not?" he snapped. "We're right here! He's right here! I haven't killed anything in the entire three hour trip it took to get here! You wouldn't even let me kill that nest of turtle eggs on the beach!"

Xosnaj began to pace around Ikari with a predators' gleam in his silvery blue eyes. "We were once comrades, Ikari," he said slowly, with drops of venom lacing his voice. "We were once allies and friends.—"

Then Boxcly interrupted. "Yes but now we're enemies. So let's kill him. Please! Can I kill him?" An almost begging tone dripped into his last sentence, making Ikari wonder how much of Colby had really changed. From the looks of it, no much at all.

Xosnaj glared at his companion. "I never said you could speak."

Boxcly backed down, though he spat the ground.

Ikari took a long look at Xosnaj. He had grown bigger since he had seen him last. Stronger, with more build. And of course, that horrid mark seemed to have been covered, just as his pride would demand.

"What brings you to my neck of the woods, scar-face?" Ikari said, with a slight bit of trepidation as he realized what he said.

Boxcly would have giggled at that moment if he wasn't gripped by an apprehensive fear that he might have his chance to kill Ikari stolen from him.

Before anyone could react, Xosnaj slammed Ikari down to the ground with his arm. A loud chime rang through the house, so loud that even Boxcly had to cringe at the intensity of it. Ikari, barely conscious, felt blood run down his face.

Ikari groggily felt his form rise up in the air. Xosnaj held him by the scruff of his shirt with his arm. Power and hate rang though his voice. "Don't ever say that again, if you want your son to be of this world."

Boxcly seemed to perk back up at this, but remained silent out of prudence. Ikari gurgled out the blood in his mouth. "You can't take criticism, old man."

Xosnaj threw him into wall, causing a huge indention. "You should be one talk about criticism, pencil-neck. All those lives. All those innocents, do you remember their screams? Their faces?"

Boxcly piped with a wicked smirk. "Oh, that's right. You never saw them, did you? Always taking them from behind. Never facing those whose lives you took."

Xosnaj kicked the pained Ikari in the ribs. "Like a coward."

"Do you think any of them was a father, Ikari," the rainbowed man bent down right up to the man's face. "Any of them had a child? A son, maybe? A son whose father you took. I guess then, what we're planning on doing isn't much different from you, Ikari Hikari." A crystal spear began to grow in his hands, just for the occasion.

"Boxcly!" barked Xosnaj.

"What?" he barked back "Just having a little fun. You know, like . . . foreplay."

Xosnaj sneered as he made his way closer. Before his partner could react, Xosnaj pulled the Ravager from Ikari. "We don't have time for your fun,' he said sternly, with a threat laced in his words.

Boxcly growled, thick, and gutturally, like one you might expect from a dog, a rabid dog, a starving rabid dog.

Ikari watched the exchange of words and blows with interest. Even through the blood, his mind circulated through ways of turning this mess to his advantage. "Both of you," he said wheezing from the force of the push that had rammed him to the wall, "hope to see you both in hell."

A pounding came from the front of the house. "Ikari!' a man yelled. "You alright? I heard a loud crash. Open up!"

Boxcly smiled and chuckled a bit. "Aww, isn't that nice to know that people care about you, Ikari." A spear materialized in his hands and with a grin. "We might as well kill them both before the whole peanut gallery shows up."

Xosnaj shook his head. "Let the dominos fall," he said calmly.

Boxcly couldn't believe his ears. His eyes bugged out like he was having a stroke. "WHAT?" he screamed infuriated. "You mean that we came all this way, wasted all this time, all this time talking, and I don't even get to kill him?!"

As Boxcly grew angrier, Xosnaj watched in fury as his black cloak and skin began to take a metallic sheen. How he wished for the death of a certain rainbow right now. He raised his hand as if he was about to grasp something. His metal face snarled at Boxcly. "Do not test me."

Boxcly snorted in disgust. "Let's get the hell out of here before I change my mind." He turned around and opened a Corridor of darkness. He stopped, as if waiting. "And kill both of you." They both left without a trace.

XXXXXXXXXX

Oni Nixel was _really_ getting irritated. The red head was on the floor, unconscious, and with a nasty bump on his head. His wife was screaming at him for 'terrifying' the locals. The weirdo in all the blue was talking, and that within itself was getting on his nerves. And on top of all this, his daughter was nowhere to be found. Wonderful.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop that!" she shrieked in his ear. "You might as well have brought Marley and you two could have brought the whole place to ruin!"

The red head had yet to awaken. Oni had contemplated just kicking him in the head but fortunately for the kid, he thought better of it. If she was this ticked off just making the kid faint, cracking his skull open would really have him in the dog house.

A groan below him was the telltale sign of consciousness. Throwing decorum into the fire, Oni grabbed the young man by the collar.

"You've kept me waiting for nearly an hour," he said, growling right in Axel's face, and the boy more terrified than he'd ever remembered being, "it's time for you to pay the piper. Where. Is. My. Daughter?"

"Dad?"

A soft thump later and Axel was back lying prostrate on the ground with a matching set of bumps on his head. Mr. Nixel had dropped him and turned around to look at someone. Axel stole a glance around the large man to see what poor soul had come to witness his human demise.

Oh hell.

Larxene stood there in shock of what was in front of her. Her father and mother were standing over Axel's body with shock plaster over their faces. Her father was older but no larger than when last she saw him. Course, the sword was a nice touch. Her mother seemed much older. Much more weary and a bit thin, even pale.

The electrokenetic curled her lips at them. "What are you two doing here?" she asked, her face tracing back into her old cruelty. "I thought I told you that I didn't want any more to do with you!"

Oni's shoulders drooped slightly. He remembered the arguments, the fights. They seemed like yesterday, but four years placed between now and then. They really had no right to be here, as he had screamed that they were washed of her, but he couldn't let go. "Elerna—" he began, but she beat him to the punch.

"That's not me anymore, old man!" she yelled. "If I remember, correctly, I haven't gone by that kid's name for four years. It's Larxene now. The Savage Nymph. I am my own person now! So just go!"

Tenshi kept her calm throughout her daughter's screaming match. "Sunshine," she said, "we realized right after you left that we should never have tried to force anything on you. Please, come home."

Larxene, quickly losing the fledgling forms of her patience, snapped back. "I am home, Mrs. Nixel. I have a home here! I can do whatever I want. I don't have be some ass behind some desk that you always wanted me to be! I could be anything from a hit man to an artist.' Her mother's eyes widened at her daughter's choices. "There's nothing you have to offer me. Why are you even here?"

Oni regained his voice, though much softer than before. "To have my daughter back."

Larxene laughed. "You never had a daughter. You had an heir, one who continued to defy you to the point of exile. You had and never will have a daughter. At least, not one with my charm."

Larxene sidestepped her father, grabbed the fallen red head by the forearm and dragged him to his feet. "Get up, dear," she whispered though loud enough for her parents to hear, "we're leaving."

Together they strode off, Demyx trailing not too far behind, leaving two very despondent millionaires.

As they turned a corner and he was sure the Nixels couldn't hear him, Axel asked, "I-your 'dear'?"

Larxene gripped his forearm painfully, forcing him to shut it. "Just go with it and if you even think about getting fresh, not even Merlin will find the pieces."

Axel didn't know who to feel sorrier for, the Nixels or himself?

**Muhahahaha! Are you confused? Good! We have been planning this syuff for months! You're of course wondering what in the worlds is going on, but I don't plan on tell you out off story. That means you too, flowergirl220! **

**The reason that this chapter took even longer was my father almost had a heart attack so I have my attention away for some time. Keep him in your prayers and hope you enjoy the rest of Next Life. **

**Now ON TO REVIEWS:**

**Turner Child****- Thanks for the compliment, and now you know who Marx is: ME! At least my dark side seen through a magnifying glass, I hope. Still wondering about Ikari? Read on!**

**Fiendslayer****- We do love this! May balors and pit fiends find their way to your blade. SHAR! SHAR! Sorry, couldn't resist. **

**Anonymous****- Women . . . ah . . . Don't I wish that I had one. I had one but . . . we had to cut it short, so now I'm stuck writing Adventure stories with dabs of romance. I suck.**

**Flowergirl220- You now get to bask in the glory of Xosnaj once more! May you be blinded by his awesomeness. I know the mystery on all of you is wearing thin and the fighting will return soon and I will send you another chapter of CoRL to look at but just remember it is me who is the author. MUHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Bye everybody! Happy Thanksgiving!**


	11. Rescue the Crazy Nymph

Chapter 11 Rescue the Crazy Nymph

Sora just walked through the streets of the town. Mom had told him that Riku wanted to see him when the whole thing was over. Sora thought about heading to the Island to check but Riku had called him and not to bother him. What a turn around! Mr. Personality says he wishes for you to bask in his energy then it's 'go away.' The worlds had turned upside down again.

He felt so utterly useless. Sora needed to go back to Radiant Garden or at least Twilight Town. He had to wait until Riku would meet him so they could get out of here. All this sitting with two madmen running around didn't do well for his stomach. He hadn't eaten anything today other very, _very_ little cereal. His normal breakfast was like those pictures you saw on TV 'as part of a complete breakfast.' Pancakes, cereal, fruit bowl . . . That was more like it.

The sun was almost beginning to go down. It wasn't yet dusk so he had some time before he needed to head home.

The glee of laughter found it way into his ears. Sora turned to see a family playing a game of badminton in part of the park. The parents each had a toddler on their shoulder with a teen girl next her dad who had a pretty good left hook and the mom had a preteen boy who was shouting something indiscernible.

Sora smiled. That's what Destiny Island was. Care free life with the people you love doing the things they love. Family spending time together with no evil witch or crackpot organization of element wielding weirdoes trying to kill you. Of course, except for the bad guys at the end, it all sounded rather sappy. But who cares!

A tune began to play around him. A bunch of electronic beeps in the form of a tune rising from his pocket. Sora pulled out his phone. It was mom? She never called him while he was out unless . . . !

"Mom? He answered with uncertainty filtering through his spiky head.

Tears filtered through speaker to his ear. Sora felt his heart stop. "I'm at the hospital. Your father was attacked."

Sora almost could feel his veins turn to ice. His whole body was stuck to the spot. He couldn't reply from just pure shock. "Sora? Are you still there?"

He shook he his to get his senses back, his veteran of many battle taking over at this point. "Yeah, mom, I'm here. Is Dad all right? Did he say who did it?"

"The doctors say he should be here for a few weeks. He said that you would know who did it. The rainbow and the steel. Do you get that, honey?"

The ice melted. Anger burned through him. They were here. They had attacked his father! They had come here to taunt him! No they would pay. They would pay with all that they had. Including their very lives. "Mom," he said through clenched teeth, "stay with dad. Don't go anywhere. I'm sorry but I can't stay."

A shrill ran through the phone. "NO! Don't go after the men that did this. "You'll just get hurt." He wished he could listen her but he couldn't, and truly, he wouldn't.

"Mother," he said with a bit of an edge to his voice, "I'm not a kid anymore. I can handle them. I know who they are. They can't run from me. I'll find them, mom. And they'll regret this day." Before his mother could scream another refusal, he flipped his phone shut. He reached into himself for the power. The Keyblade appeared in his hands. Its power flooded through him.

Xosnaj had wanted his attention. He got it. And it would cost him a war.

XXXXXXXXXX

The gummi ship flew through the skies of the worlds with reckless abandon. Sora piloted the craft with expert ease. Riku had to try to consol the rather terrified Selphie. He couldn't leaver her back at her house all alone, so a quick note to her parents and he took her with them. Sora had barley spoken throughout the journey other than an explanation to him and a radio out to Leon.

This was going to be a long day.

"You're telling me that our little town in only a small world in all this big ocean and we're going to some place called Radiant Garden to meet with some guy named Leon, right?" Selphie repeated.

Riku nodded. He had to admit. It was all a bit overwhelming. "Leon had a few people who can help us and he has contact to King Mickey."

"You mean that big talking mouse that can around the Islands that one time?" she squealed.

Grimacing from the high pitch, he nodded.

Another squeal.

Sora paid the scene behind him no head. He was nearing the first entrance of Radiant Garden. Once eh got his hands on them. Nothing would be able stop him.

Kairi squeezed his hand from the other chair. She had let him have his silence and his was grateful. He would make all this torture up to her somehow later, but first things came first. She just sat there staring at him with her eyes fixed in worry.

Yeah, he would _defiantly_ make it up to her.

When this was all over

XXXXXXXXXX

Commodore Norrington felt he was an able commander, and able fight and able trustee of the governor. He had sent of a few patrols throughout the fort with a few extra men tonight. The sightings of the white and black creatures had increased, and he didn't was to take any chances.

Garbed in his finest, Norrington made out the report to Governor Swann. A ship had been stolen in the middle of the night with the crew completely missing along with several months' worth of provisions and ammo. Along with that, Will Turner's forge, that supplied much of the iron from the cannon balls, had been raided, not a scrap of iron left. None of the already made items had been left. That was just the start of it. Iron was becoming scarce all over the fort with one day a crate with iron items ready to be melted into ammo, the next it vanish along with the tools to create more weapons if they had the iron. The Governor wasn't happy, and quite frankly, neither was Norrington.

Things were so much simpler when he was still just a captain of a ship and could go about and scour the seas from the pirate ilk, not search the harbor for an iron monopoly. Of course, to even begin a search for pirates, he would need the iron. Once this was settled, he was going to relax his nerves with a pirate hunt. That would set all his ducks back in a row again.

The report never got to be finished.

And explosion rocked the Commodore's office. The British sea-men were knocked from his chair to sprawled out on the floor. "What the Devil!" he spat. Rising to his feet, Norrington ran up to the window and looked to see what the commotion was.

Out in the distance, he could see a ship, but it didn't look like any merchant ship or any man-of-war he ever seen. Not even an East Indian Men vessel looked like this. From his position he saw that the mast was gone and in its place was a huge rotating canon. The ship looked darker than any ship he had seen, at least in coloration. It looked like a dark grey, not like any seagoing wood he had ever seen.

The huge cannon opened fire releasing a huge girt of flame. Red and orange ripped through the sky lighting through the dusk blending in with the red of the sun like a celestial dance. Norrington watched as the escapee from the canon flew though the air with amazing speed. It was like no other cannon ball he had seen. It was elongated with a point on it like a rounded spear. It shone through the carnage with a terrible brilliance.

The light ended quickly as the missile met its mark: another of the ships waiting in the harbor. The ship exploded that one shot. The flames erupted all up to the sky. The missile must have hit the storeroom where the power was, Norrington concluded. But his theory was short lived as he realized the ship had been assaulted on the back end. The captain's quarters. That missile must have been like a power keg. A bomb flying through the air.

More such kegs flew again. The Commodore watched in utter horror as the dock and other ships began to be set ablaze with ease. Screams managed to claw their way to him. Screams of the dying, of the burning, of the mourning.

He could take it no longer. Rushing from the window, the pirate hunter grabbed his sword and ripped open the door.

Someone stood before him. A rather skinny man in a black cloak with—was that rainbow hair and eyes?—a sneer and a rather angry look in his eyes. "Look, I'm pissed, you're pissed, let's get this over withand have a nice day." A fanged grin began to spread across the man's face. The newcomer pushed Norrington back against the wall. After he licked his lips the colorful man, out of pure anger, kicked to the side, knocking the door right of its hinges!

Norrington drew his saber. "Stand aside, sir!" He commanded. "The port is under attack!"

The lanky man gave him a 'duh' expression. He picked the door back and with superhuman strength hurled it straight through the stone wall! Norrington gazed in awe and fear as the door sailed through the air. Thankfully, it never hit anyone but made a rather loud splash as it broke the water.

The sound of popping echoed through the room. The powdered-wigged commodore reverted his gaze back to the man. Light shone around him and he popped his neck and crystals began to form in his hands in the form of a large claymore. The man held it with ease, much like one would hold a rapier! That's impossible! The drawback of using such a large weapon was that you couldn't use it like a small sword, especially not a rapier! What is this man? Or is even a man?

Boxcly approached him, sword in hand, blood boiling, and growled. "Introductions are wasted on the living."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sora couldn't believe his eyes at what he was seeing. They were back! While he had been sitting on his hands back in the Islands, the Enemy had been preparing. Villain's Vale, abandoned for so long was crawling with specks of white that were barely visible in all the black. Heartless in the thousands! Nobodies in the hundreds!

Leon stared in horror along with his younger friend. None of the scanners or sensors had picked any of this up. Cid's new computer along with the use of Old Ansem's supercomputer had been completely blind to all of this. An entire army amassed in Kingdom knows how long. They could have been sitting here since the fall of Xemnas!

Leon picked up a little rock from the ground and through it into the huge mass. He never saw it through the dark blob.

Axel scowled at what he was seeing. It would take more than just two Nobodies to open up this many Heartless _this _fast. Xosnaj and Boxcly simply didn't have the strength to do it. Maybe with a little help they could pull it off. It was obviously their doing but the question was 'how'?

Axel wished he still retained the power of command over the Heartless. It was one thing he had lost when he had regained his precious heart. Only one of the Realm of Darkness or who had become attuned to the dark monsters could control them.

Others of their group had taken a pit of a more 'forward' approach to just sit there and let the Heartless breed like that. Larxene had wanted to jump in the middle of the Vale guns blazing. Thankfully, before she could jump off the cliff and charge into the canyon alone, Axel and Leon grabbed her by the arms and put her back. Then had sent her back with Cloud sulking. He saw her trying to start a conversation with the stoic. Very unlikely.

"Leon?" Sora asked seriously, "What's the plan?"

Lionhert sighed. "I don't know. We have plans for advancements of Heartless but nothing on this scale."

Sora turned to look at his friends as if he had grown an extra head. "You mean you're just going to let them sit their still they get hungry and peal out your heart?"

Leon didn't know how to respond. Or at least he really didn't have time to respond from the explosion!

Lightning crashed down into the gorge like an angry bull, eyes like coals and steam from its nostrils barely containing its fury. The spectators didn't need a higher form of math to come up with the answer of why there was a giant blast in a giant black and white mass of monsters.

Larxene herself was having a ball. She had managed to convince Cloud to accompany her on a little free for all. Her knives dove into the black flesh of a Heartless, electricity surging up through her form. The Neoshadow dissipated into black nothingness. With the flick of her other hand, she slashed through two other Neoshadows on her right who had through about giving her a surprise. She sliced through them with ease. Two more shadows attack from her front and with the electric pulses she had sent through the magnetic ore in the ground, she could feel another Neo shadow began to creep through the shadows to attack her. Faster than a human could blink, the Savage nymph made a turn with her knives and then proceeded to charge through her newest prey.

Larxene's newest partner in crime was not to be disappointment. Cloud, using his massive sword, sliced through the Heartless like a very hot knife through butter. He let his years of training express themselves in the best imaginable. The enigmatic blond sliced to his left searing through several Heartless who just had the misfortune of just being there.

Cloud knew that this was going to be an overwhelming fight so the SOLDIER did the most unexpected thing for the spectators watching above. Cloud clicked a switch on the guard of the sword causing another sword to pop out of the former which he caught with excellent reaction speed. In short time it took to get the new sword; the Heartless had replaced their fellows. Cloud swept all around him in a turn with his words like a drill. The Heartless never stood a chance.

"Are they crazy?" screamed a rather flustered duck as he fired spells into the fray.

Axel couldn't help but smirk at the duck. "Personally," he said conjuring his chakrams, "this is one of her better ideas and I'm in! Bye guys!" Throwing caution to a rather bloody wind, Axel jumped off the cliff, magically conjured fire dancing around him, burning the very air that they resided in.

Leon laughed himself. Sora gripped the handle of the Keyblade. The kid was barely able to keep himself from jumping off and joining his friends. "Go," he said to the clump of spikes next to him, "beat some heartless and get them out of there." Leon shot a blast from his gunblade into the mass. "I'll head back and get the others in case. Remember; don't do too many stupid things."

And with that, the Head of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee was off like a shot to inform the others of their guest rash actions.

Sora didn't need to be told twice. He leaped off the cliff summoning the power from the Keyblade to lessen the fall, much like Axel had done. Whilst falling, he cast a number of fire and lightning spells devastating the legion of dark beings below him.

When he hit the ground, he swung the Keyblade to his left, ramming it through several Heartless stretching his hand forward and with the cry of the incantation, Sora blast another larger fire spell, incinerating the unfortunate who were in firing range.

Sora swung his blade back around behind his back, slicing through the enemy. Keyblade in front of him, Sora charged forward. Three Neoshadows jumped in the air at him, ready to claw his face off. He threw the blade at them like a boomerang. The spinning blade rang through them, cutting them in two.

With no weapon, Sora was defenseless as another Neoshadow slashed its claws against the back of his head while another of its comrades found that Sora's leg made an excellent scratching post.

Hissing in pain, Sora called upon his magical energies within him. With a quick gravity spell, the dark orb came down crushing the two Neoshadows. Sora called back the Keyblade and continued to charge into the battle.

The veteran had come back to the war.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Oni Nixel felt like he was about to burst with pride. _That's my girl!_ The young man known as Leon had come into the castle to say that his you Ele-Larxene had gone right into a hoard with only one other person as back up and began to tear through enemies.

While the large burly man was beside himself with fatherly pride and a bit of humor, her mother felt her heart all but stop. She hated when Oni got into these sorts of situations but now her daughter had taken after the old bear and said what the hell. She wished sometimes she had listened to her mother and married into a normal family, but of course what's done is done.

"Stop laughing, you old goat!" she snapped at her husband. "She could be in serious danger!"

Her rebuke of him caused Oni to only laugh even harder. "She's a true Nixel! She can handle herself and if I remember, she's got some help."

Leon couldn't help but grin as he watched the married couple and of course id didn't help matters that Cid was trying to find his old spear in all the junk he pilled around here. Yuffie took a whet stone and sharpened her huge shuriken. A mischievous grin was plastered on her face. She had something planned, he knew it. Something she wasn't telling them.

Aerith and Tifa raced down the stairs. But before Tifa could scream for them to hurry up, the door opened up reveal a man that many had not seen in many years.

"Somebody call for an exterminator?" spoke Vincent Valentine.

He strode into the room, his ripped red cloak fluttering in the air as through air was being gently blow from the ground below him. Blackened leather pants glowed with an almost ethereal dark glow with a long three-barreled pistol hanging from a holster on them. Black untamed hair hung on him with a long strand of the dark mass hiding his right eye. His skin was like that of a vampire, pale like that of the dead.

"I got a call," he said in a monotone bringing up a cell phone in his golden glove clawed hand. A few in the room could help but chuckle. Vincent had been made fun of for a while of being technologically behind in the times. Of course, even when he got the phone, he preferred that you never-_ever_-call him.

Yuffie jumped up from her seat leaving her shuriken behind with a cry of "Vincent!" She ran up to him and gave him a big hug much to the shock of the Restoration Committee but Vincent seemed completely unfazed.

Without saying a word, the enigmatic Valentine took his un-clawed hand and pattered her head. She released him and he pulled his rather impressive pistol, Cerberus, and coked it. "You all going to just sit there?"

They didn't need to be told twice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Boxcly wished he could prowl the city streets of Port Royal. There were some many people here! Some many chance to spill blood, but Norrington wasn't his only target for the night. Xosnaj and his literal ironclad had blockaded the harbor along with devastating all the ships. He had to admit though, when Xosnaj let him kill the crew of the ship so he could remove all the iron from blood, he had slightly forgiven him for not slaughtering Ikari, but he was still sore on that.

He wanted off this world as soon as possible. It stunk, he got seasick, and he hated sailing. Xosnaj on the other hand was having a ball. He almost saw the Fallen Steel smile when he directed the ironclad warship to open fire on the 'primitive naval base' as he called it.

Boxcly approached the governor's mansion with a sinister smirk and as he passed a lewd wind to a maid that was running form the place before he got there.

Oh yeah, this was going to be fun!

He ripped through the gates with crystalline claws. They fell to the ground with a clank. He gave a brief whistle. The place was nice, if it wasn't for the sea being so close he might ask Xosnaj if he could have the place when it was all over. After all even psychotic murderers need a place to lay their heads every now and then.

"Halt!" A man stood at the doorway of the mansion. He was young maybe early twenties; dark neatly cut hair and a goatee. Common cloths of this place with tanned breeches and a puffy shirt. A very fine sword in his hand was held at the ready. These people really know how to roll out the welcome wagon.

Boxcly grinned again. Another of his targets and this one had come on a silver platter to him oh he defiantly led a charmed life. Will Turner wouldn't stand a chance.

**Yo! Everyone, I returned with another chapter! You may never believe this but I did this entire chapter whilst recovering from my surgery. I was placed under anesthesia and then cut open to take out several gall stones along with the gall bladder itself and my appendix which there was nothing really wrong with it. I officially hate hospital rooms now. There were 48 ceiling tiles in my room! I couldn't type while being in their bed and really with the pain, I couldn't sleep. Ever played a movie over in your head? It's really weird.**

**Well, personally I can understand that there weren't that many reviews on the last chapter. I can admit that it really was filler but never fear for a real chapter has arrived. I will answer the only review and I encourage you all to review because every time you read but don't review, Boxcly goes around killing little puppies and kittens. Review because YOU can help.**

**Flowergirl220-I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and Oni and Tenshi did deserve that. They are a very rich family and more of their past will be revealed later but I can tell you that they are from the same world as Xosnaj and Boxcly and you'll meet some more of the people from their soon enough. Though you may not know them but I am sure that many of our other readers will. Here's a hint. "A good son would have known."**

**Well I hope you all like this chapter. Be prepared as over the Thanksgiving Holiday I plan to right a good bit, much more than I did over the summer. And soon enough all you people have been loyal from the very beginning will soon be graced with (drum roll please!) _Return of an Empire!_ YAY!**


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